Time Loop
by Nanya
Summary: Based on the "Time Loops" by Innortal. First they tormented Midchilda with pranks, and now they followed Ranma to Nerima. Now it's time for the Numbers to learn how to have fun and live. It's too bad that they looped to Nerima.
1. Prank War

Time Loop

Prank War

Disclaimer: Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, Ranma 1/2 and all other assorted series are owned by their respective owners. I am not making a profit off of this.

Notes: Based in the "Time Loops" by Innortal, a time-looping Ranma finds himself thrust into the role of Jail Scagiletti. Now as Ranma Scagiletti, he plans to make things far more interesting than they were originally for everyone on Midchilda.

* * *

Ranma groaned as he blinked and woke up. This wasn't Nerima. He nearly jumped up and cheered. How many loops had he been stuck in that place lately? He had lost count.

"Doctor." A soft voice caught his attention as he blinked. He didn't expect to see a purple-haired, yellow-eyed woman in a secretary suit walking to him. "Are you well?" She asked, smiling pleasantly, though Ranma knew there was more to it than that.

"Uno." He said as he knew what was going on, or rather, at least who she was. "Tell me something, which of your sisters hasn't been activated yet?" At least he knew who he was in this loop. He was Ranma Scagiletti, mad scientist, terrorist, dimensional criminal, and about to have a whole lot of fun with the people of Mid-childa. Even if Fate and Nanoha were awake in this loop (which they probably were), it wouldn't help them, not this time.

She blinked at the odd question, but answered. "Sette, Otto and Deed."

"Has the Saint Kaiser been discovered yet?"

"Ah, no. but we believe that we know where she'll pop up soon."

"Ah, good, good. Gather your sisters and meet me in the conference room."

"...We do not have a conference room." Uno blinked. "We usually just meet wherever you want us to."

Ranma blinked and turned to stare at her. "We do not have a conference room?" He asked incredulously. Seeing her shake her head, he frowned. "What kind of evil mad scientist am I if I don't have a conference room? Lex Luthor would be so disappointed in me!" He groused, pulled some wooden planks out from behind his back, a saw, a hammer and some nails. "Well, time to get to work." He said and walked off leaving a confused Uno in his wake.

Hours later Uno found herself in a hastily put together conference room with all her activated sisters sitting in front of a rectangular table with Ranma sitting at the end, Quattro on his left, Uno on his right, Nove, Wendi and Sein sitting next to Uno while Tre, Cinque and Dieci sat next to Quattro.

Uno didn't know what was more surprising, the fact that there was now a conference room, or the fact that the doctor had built it in only a few hours. "Doctor, just what is it that you called us here for?"

"Ah, I'm glad you asked." Ranma grinned as he stood up, the lights dimmed and a projection appeared in the middle of the table. "As you know, the Saint Kaiser is to be found soon, and I will send several of you in a, rather futile, I might say, attempt to capture her before the TSAB sends in its most powerful group to secure her and two relics that she's carrying." Many of the Numbers frowned, why had he just insulted their abilities?

"While there is really no way for us to defeat any of the Aces in a straight up fight," well, he could, but that would be boring, "I do have a better way for us to win."

Cinque would blink, but she was missing a second eye to make that function possible. "What is that, doctor?"

Ranma suddenly grinned in such a way that all the cyborgs suddenly felt chills run down their spines. "Why, we prank them of course!"

Quattro blinked at him as if he were insane. "Prank them?"

Tre slammed her fists onto the table. "What kind of lame plan is that?" Sure, she might be willing to die for the doctor, but she needed to know what was going through his head at that moment.

"Ah! I'm glad you asked." Ranma smirked at her. "You see, straight up combat is just... So out. It's too easy to figure out how a person thinks when they fight. Pranking, now that's just so much more fun. After all, bruises, broken bones and pain all fade away, humiliation, now that lasts forever." He would know, considering how often he and the other Anchors ended up pranking each other.

"Okay, so, we go and prank them... How?" Sein asked, curious and actually very interested. This seemed so much more fun than she had thought it would be.

Ranma grinned at her. "Just leave that to me." He already had Shadow Clones working on modifying the flying drones, Deici's heavy cannon and a few other things that were coming up. He suddenly pointed at Wendi and Nove. "You two, I've got a special mission for you." He then pointed at Uno. "Give Lutecia and Zest a call, I need to talk to them." Even if it was for a loop, he could fix Lutecia's mother and stop Zest's body from breaking down. After all, learning a few tricks from Urahara, Gina and other mad scientists really gave him an excellent idea or three for fixing people. He then pointed at Tre. "You, find a guy and get laid in the next 24 hours." Seeing the utterly serious member stare at him and several of the younger Numbers all blush heavily, he smirked to himself, this was fun! He pointed at Quattro. "Call Due up and tell her to hurry up with her mission. Those floating brains are giving me a headache."

"What about me? Cinque asked as he smiled at her.

"Oh, I think you'll like what I've got planned. Now if you'll excuse me..." He said, smirking at them. "I need Nove and Wendi to meet me at the labs." He disappeared in a poof of smoke, getting blinks and blank stares from everyone.

"I don't care if he has gone crazy, that was so cool!" Wendi grinned, grabbed Nove and ran for the labs.

The remaining cyborgs looked at each other, trying to figure out what to do.

"Hey, call me crazy, but I'm interested in seeing what he's got planned." Sein spoke up, grinning. The idea of doing pranks rather than fighting sounded good to her, she was the least capable, combat-wise, of all her sisters.

Uno shrugged. "I guess we should follow the plan now."

Quattro and Tre both frowned, they didn't like it, well, Quattro didn't like the plan, Tre didn't like the thought of having a guy run his grubby hands all over her body. Unless it was the doctor, and even then, she wasn't sure about it.

(---)

Nove blinked as she was handed a new gauntlet to put over her right hand and one to put on her left. "Um... What are these for?"

"Quite honestly, dear, while you're good, you're going up against people who would kick your pretty little butt in two seconds flat." Ranma said, ignoring the way that Nove would both frown and blush at him. "So, instead of taking the time to make sure that you can, in fact, beat them in a fight, I've given you something that will both annoy your enemies and ensure your victory."

Wendi looked at the gun in her hands. "What's this for?" It was a hand gun with a clown face on the front.

Ranma chuckled. "Oh, don't worry, it's a lot of fun. Unless your name is Batman, then it's no fun."

Wendi blinked, not really getting the reference.

"Ah, Dieci, you came here."

"Yes." She blinked as he waggled his finger at her.

"No, no... You can't just be all "yes" around me, you need a personality. When your next mission is done, I'm ordering you to start finding stuff that you enjoy that doesn't involve blowing stuff up..." Ranma blinked as he thought about it. "Actually, no, you can blow stuff up if you want to." Far be it from him to deny someone that simple pleasure.

Wendi's eyes sparkled as she heard him basically give her and her sisters the go-ahead to make everything explode. "Really?"

Ranma nodded at her. "Why, yes. Make things explode... Like this!" He suddenly pulled out something from his pocket and threw it down the hallway, where there was a flash, a bang and someone screaming. "Ooops..."

A moment later, Quattro walked in, her hair smoking as Sein and Cinque both tried to put out the remaining embers in what remained of her once-long hair. Considering that it was now falling off of her head, leaving her bald, it was a losing battle.

Wendi tried to keep it in, she really did, but seeing Quattro's head on fire was just too rich. "BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" She fell over laughing hard.

Ranma smirked. "You see, Wendi, that's how that works."

"WENDI!!" Quattro screamed, suddenly pouncing for her younger sister.

"Ack! Quattro! Stop!" Wendi rolled away from Quattro, who was either trying to choke her, or gouge her eyes out.

"Ahhh... Sisterly love, isn't it great?" Ranma said, getting a weird look from Dieci and Nove.

(---)

Uno, walking into the main room, blinked as she saw Ranma there. "Ah, doctor, I thought you'd be at the lab."

"I am." He grinned at her.

"I... See..." She trailed off, blinking as she saw the tube with Megane Alphine floating in it. "What are you going to do with her?"

"Nothing much, just fixing her. She should be able to move around in a few minutes." Ranma shrugged and continued working several healing spells into Megane. This was actually pretty hard to do, especially since he was just one of fifty clones running around the place. "Now, call up Lutecia and Zest for me."

"Ah, right..." She punched a few buttons, a view screen showing Zest and Lutecia walking through a forest appeared. "Ah, Miss Alphine, Mr. Zest. Miss Agito." She smiled pleasantly at the three. "I do hope that you three aren't busy."

"Oi..." The redheaded device glared at her. "We're not doing your dirty work unless you have a Relic for Lulu to find."

"Ah! Nothing of the sort!" Ranma spoke up as he walked into view, grinning at the trio. "Miss Lutecia... I have recently discovered a way to fix your mother."

Her eyes widened, as did Zest's and Agito's as they stared at the view screen. "You can fix my mother?" She asked softly.

"Oh yes. But it might take a couple days for her to fully get the use of her body back normally."

"Oh..." She said softly, slightly disappointed.

"She'll be fine, I promise you that." He grinned at her. "But I have a small, small favor to ask of you three."

"What?" Lutecia asked, her eyes showing that if he did fix her mother, she would do anything for him.

"Well, I would need you three to return here, there's been a small change in plans, and I'd rather tell you three personally. You, Zest, you might be interested in what I'm planning personally."

"And me?" Agito narrowed her eyes at him.

"Well, honestly, I never thought about it. Hahahahaha!" He suddenly cackled, getting odd looks from everyone. "What? Can't a mad scientist break out into laughter like this?" He shrugged, people had no sense of style these days. "Bah! Whatever. Just you three get here and I'll show you what I have planned. Ta ta." He grinned and shut the communication array off.

"Can you fix her?"

"Already did." Ranma smirked at her, getting a blink in surprise. "Had to draw upon the latent energy the Dragon Lines, cross-fuse it with Mid-Childan, Belkan and Earth-based healing magic, cast a resurrection spell on top of a recovery spell... Boy I'm tired now. Anyway, she'll be fine." Ranma walked off, muttering something about needing to finish a honey bomb.

Uno blinked, she hadn't expected this... Sein was right, this was getting interesting.

(---)

It was finally the day that the Saint Kaiser was going to appear, the day that the Numbers took the field and took out the annoying Riot Force Six.

At least that's what Quattro, wearing a wig, wanted to believe. No, instead, she was certain that this was all going to go badly. At least the doctor had told her to keep to her original role and disguise the drones that they were sending out with illusionary copies of the originals. She just didn't think she liked what the originals were going to do now.

Another thing that bugged her was that the doctor had undid all the hard work she had done to Sette. Why would she need those useless things like emotions anyway? It just didn't make sense. Still, she had a job to do, and she wouldn't fail him, then she could find out what was going on.

...And just why was Tre blushing around the doctor anyway? She had heard Tre screaming a few hours after that "conference" and she and Cinque had quickly checked on Tre, only to find her stumbling around, blushing and babbling incoherently while Ranma whistled tunelessly as he passed her.

"I.S. Silver Curtain." She whispered as she saw the two Aces fly into the battle zone. Now she would see just what modifications that the doctor had done to the drones would do.

(---)

Nanoha narrowed her eyes and sighed. "Let's get this over with, Fate-chan."

Fate nodded, knowing that both of them could get rid of these drones before they got too problematic, get back to the helicopter and save the people inside. Not Vivio, even before the loops, Vivio would be able to withstand anything Dieci could throw at them, but the others inside. The weird thing about the loops was that no matter how many times they looped, Dieci and Quattro were always in a different area sniping at the helicopter.

It was almost as if it was supposed to happen or something.

Sighing, Nanoha held out Raising Heart and blasted one of the drones, smiling as her shot over-whelmed the puny A.M.F. and tore through the machine. However, she didn't expect it to explode in a variety of colors, or said colors to be wet and stick to her barrier jacket, making it look green, yellow and red at the same time. "What the heck?" She wondered, blasting another one, this time she had to cover her face as she was covered in some sort of yellow, sticky substance. "...Honey?" It was stuck in her hair now to. "This sucks."

"Nanoha!" Fate groaned as she was covered in sticky, smelly, wet trash. "...Someone is going to pay for this." Literally too, since it took so long to wash her hair.

_"Hey, are you two okay out there?"_ They heard Hayate's voice speak up.

"We will be when these drones are dead."

_"Hey, leave that to me."_ She said and started charging up magic. "If I can get some help." She said to mission control.

"Of course!" The people sitting at the consoles all said at the same time as they worked calculations, angles and other variables into the computers.

(---)

Ranma started chuckling madly. "Oh, they think they're so good, huh? Uno, do it!" He grinned at her as she started giggling while hacking Riot Force Six's computers. "Let's see them handle this one!"

(---)

"Uh, sir..." Everyone stared at the screens as they changed from tactical data to something more...

The women in the control room blushed heavily while many of the guys started drooling, those that didn't passed out with terrible nosebleeds.

It wasn't often that naked pictures of the three legendary Aces were put up on screen for everyone to stare at after all.

(---)

"Ah, guys... Help?" Hayate sweat-dropped, but she couldn't hold her spell in anymore, letting go, it arched out, thankfully hitting her targets... And a few mountains behind them. "..." Hayate couldn't believe she missed so badly. At least no one was living there.

(---)

Blinking as a spear was jabbed right in front of her chest, Lutecia looked at the redheaded boy in front of her, before tilting her head, reaching behind her and pulling out a small box. "For you."

"Eh?" Erio blinked as she tossed the box to him. "Vita-san?" He asked, holding it to her, he didn't want to risk doing something stupid.

Grumbling, Vita went to the box and looked at it, she couldn't sense anything dangerous and lifting it up didn't reveal anything suspicious. Still... "Better not open it."

"Oi... Hammer loli's afraid of a little box." Agito, tied up as she was, grinned at Vita, who twitched and glared at her. "What's wrong? Afraid of a box?"

"Fine! I'll prove that I'm not, BWAH!" Vita pulled the cover off, jumping back as fake snakes popped out of it and flew everywhere. "...Who came up with something so..."

Her words were cut off with a "splut".

Vita blinked as her face was suddenly covered in cool whip and chocolate, the pie tin falling to the ground slowly.

Lutecia blinked innocently, held up another pie and threw it at Caro, splattering her dress. "...The doctor was right, this is fun." She said softly.

Ginga nearly said something when a shadow came overhead. "Heads up!" She yelled as there was a plinking sound as a few small canisters hit the ground near their feet, spraying out a smoke-screen.

Wendi grinned and nodded to Nove, who was riding in right behind her. Jumping down into the smoke, Nove shot several shots at Erio, Caro, Ginga, Subaru and Teana, grabbed Lutecia and Agito, ran out of the smoke and drove off on her version of Wing Road.

Coughing as the smoke cleared, Rein blinked, and stared, before she started laughing, everyone looked like a demented clown painter had decided to have fun with all of them.

Twitching, Subaru looked at herself and frowned, this was _not_ how this day was supposed to go. And since when did Lutecia ever develop a sense of humor anyway? "Urgh... What is that stench?" She groaned.

"The paint." Teana gagged, who put such a stench in this stuff?!

(---)

Dieci was silent as her gun powered up. "I.S. Heavy Barrage." She whispered, firing her cannon at the helicopter. She blinked as what came out of her cannon, something Brianna Diggers would love to have in her collection, was not her usual heavy cannon shell but rather... "Rotten tomato juice." She said as the stench hit her, and Nanoha, who got in front of the blast, trying to stop it, but it still soaked her and the helicopter in one go. "..." She fired again, this time getting something different. Looking at the gauge that the Doctor installed onto her gun, she blinked. "Ode De Le Pepe Le Pu?" Why did she get the sudden urge to be thankful she wasn't a cat.

"Okay, we did our jobs, let's get out of here." Quattro muttered irritably. How could anyone find this fun?

(---)

Ranma grinned as he saw all of his cyborgs, Lutecia and Agito walking back into base. "Ah! Welcome back! Did you all have a good time?"

"That was so much fun!" Wendi grinned and glomped him, hugging tightly. "Can we do it again?! Please?"

Ranma laughed. "Sure! We'll terrorize Mid-Childa through pranks!"

"YAY!" Wendi was sure happy, so was Nove, she rather liked the looks she saw on all the clothes that she ruined. "Hey, what gave you such a wonderful idea anyway?"

Ranma chuckled. "Now that... is a secret!" He was glad Xellos wasn't here.

Idly he wondered just how much Nanoha and Fate were going to hate him after this. Ah well, they were the only ones, besides maybe a couple of others, that would remember this anyway.

(---)

Sitting in the shower as they tried to get the smell, the paint, garbage and honey off of their bodies, Nanoha and Fate had come to an easy agreement. One of the other anchors had put the combat cyborgs up to doing this insanity. And when they found out who, there would be hell to pay.

...Just as soon as they stopped stinking up the place.

(---)

Ranma smirked as he and Nove ate pizza in silence.

"Where's Cinque?"

"Sparring with Zest."

"Oh." Nove blinked. "What did you do to him?"

"Ah..." Ranma grinned as he got up and pulled out several charts from somewhere and put them on a stand. "You see, Zest's problem was that he was already dead and that his body, fixed as it was, was starting to fall apart. All I did was pull out his soul and power and stuff it into a false body that dead spirits use to wander around freely among the living."

"Wait, so, it's just a doll for a dead spirit?" Nove wondered as Ranma nodded at her.

"Oh yes, but it is fully functional. It's possible for people who are in these things to have children, grow old, live and die as normal humans. It's called a Gigai, that's all." Ranma shrugged.

"Ah." Nove nodded and bit into her pizza, before looking at Ranma curiously. "Just why is Tre acting like a blushing school girl?"

Ranma shrugged and smirked at her. "I could show you."

"Ah... Um... Well..." Nove blushed heavily as Ranma started chuckling. "You're teasing me!"

"Partly. I can teach it to Wendi and have her do it to you if you'd prefer."

"What makes you think Wendi and I are doing anything together?!"

Ranma shook his head at the blushing Nove. "No reason."

(---)

Agito looked at Lutecia as she slept in Megane's arms, cuddling close to her mother. "I've never seen her like this, Lulu always is quiet."

Megane nodded, smiling at her. "Thank you for looking over my daughter."

"Ah... She looked over me, actually. I just don't like seeing her hurt."

Megane nodded and looked up as Cinque limped by, Zest, slightly cut up, following her a moment later. "Have fun?"

Cinque nodded and limped down to the medical area for some treatment.

"She's gotten better." Zest said, though that may have been because he wasn't used to this new body just yet. It was exactly the same as his old one, it just felt different.

"Oi! Meister... What should we do now?"

Zest shrugged at Agito's question and looked at Megane, who smiled as she rubbed her daughter's back. "I need to talk to Regisus, I would like your help with that, Agito."

"I want to go with as well." Megane spoke up. "I owe Quint that much at least. She kept me from dying, but she died in my place."

Zest nodded. "Though, I have to wonder why the doctor wants us to take those items with."

Agito shrugged, hell if she knew.

(---)

Quattro frowned as she worked on her projects, just because the doctor decided to go crazy and against his original ideas didn't mean that she had to forget. She was rather upset that Tre was actually happy, her hard work on Sette had gone down the tube and Uno was totally supporting the doctor. She couldn't blame the younger sisters, they didn't know any better. But did Cinque have to start hoarding plushy toys these days?

"Ooooh! What does THIS button do?!" Quattro's eyes widened as she spun around, seeing Sette pushing a button.

"No! Sette! Don't!" Quattro yelled as the experiment she was working on exploded around her, burning the cheap wig on her head to dust, leaving her bald and eyebrow-less. "Get out of my laboratory!" She screamed, pushing Sette out of the room and closing the door.

Sette seemed to pout and smiled at Ranma, who grinned at her. "That was fun, dad!"

Ranma blinked and seemed to pale. "Uh, did you call me, dad?"

The tall pink-haired girl nodded at him. "Yep. You did save me from being mindless."

Ranma groaned, why did he have a feeling this would come back to bite him in the ass?

Oh well, at least Quattro would get annoyed. He had put a compulsion into Sette's mind to totally wreck Quattro's lab at every possible moment.

Idly, he wondered how Dexter ever put up with Dee Dee doing that to his lab.

(---)

Sein grinned at Wendi, who grinned back as the two of them worked on their new toys. "This is a lot more fun than before."

Wendi giggled and nodded. "Oh yes, I wish I could have stuck around and saw the looks on everyone's faces."

"So, what's next?" Dieci asked as she listened to various music from the MP3 player that the doctor had gotten for her. She liked the rock and roll music.

"Well, the doctor wanted us to wait until the big meeting with all the big wigs of the TSAB got together." Sein smirked as she saw Quattro grumbling as she walked past. "You guys think that the doctor is upset with Quattro?"

Wendi nodded, but considering that Quattro had tried to hurt her, she really didn't feel sorry for her. "Maybe, but everyone else is happy about the pranks."

"Yeah..." Dieci nodded as the song changed that she was listening to.

There was a loud explosion that rocked from the hallway, getting the three to tense and stand up, preparing themselves for an attack.

"You BRATS!" Quattro's voice was heard, causing Wendi, Sein and Dieci to look up, blinking as Otto and Deed ran past the door, stopped, turned and fired something from the super soakers that they had on them, to the fuming Quattro. The three sighed and sat back down, it was just Quattro getting upset again.

"Better her than us." Dieci said as Quattro, covered in egg yolk, ran past trying to get Otto and Deed. Wendi and Sein both nodded and went back to ignoring it.

(---)

Days later...

Sein had her finger through the ceiling as people congregated below. Her camera-finger took in all the details. She didn't know why the doctor had told her to be careful if she saw any of the three Aces, or the Wolkenritter, but everyone else was fair game. Which was good. She looked at the list in her hands, those people were to be hit the hardest. She had their names and their faces. Seeing some of the things that they had done really irritated even her.

Especially as the doctor had taken the time to explain to all of them, except for Quattro, who was trying to get another wig to stay on her head, just how these things were considered bad by everyone else.

Still, thanks to Uno's hacking the locks on the building, and keeping everyone from going anywhere was a real help. "Well, bombs away!" She thought to herself as she started throwing rotten eggs down at select members of the TSAB's high council, pelting them and stinking up the room, getting people to start looking around, yelling and cursing as they were pelted with the stench.

Hayate frowned as she plugged her nose from the stench, some anchor was doing this, she knew it. Now if only she knew which one.

(---)

Regisus ran. The old, out of shape general ran like his life depended on it. He was lucky that the doctor told him that he would be needing to leave quite a bit early. Panting as he got into the parking lot, he wondered just why that pink haired cyborg wouldn't stop chasing him, that gun looked scary!

"Regisus..." A voice that he hadn't heard in eight years made him stop cold.

"Zest... Megane... You two... You're supposed to be dead!" He looked at them with wide eyes. The little girl and the small unison device floating by said girl went largely unnoticed by the panicking general. Had Zest come to kill him? Had Megane? Did they want revenge over what happened eight years ago to them? To Quint?

"You with-held information, Regisus." Megane stated softly. "The doctor told us what happened."

"You trusted him? But he's the reason that you all got hurt that day."

"Yes. But he apologized to us and helped us live again... But first, we need to deal with you." Zest said gravely, getting a pale look from Regisus.

"Yes... So..." Megane pulled out a gun, pointed it at the large general and pulled the trigger.

Regisus closed his eyes, expecting the worst. When nothing happened, he opened his eye, seeing a stick out of the handle, a white flag on it. Megane grinned and turned the gun to the side, letting him see the words "Bang" on it.

"Oh thank god..." Regisus let out a sigh and started laughing, only to blink as Zest pulled out a gun with a boxing glove on the end, pointed it at him, pulled the trigger, allowing the glove to fire out from the end and hit the large general in the face, knocking him down and out.

"Hit harder than I thought." Zest muttered as he looked up, seeing Sette, holding a weird gun. "What does that do?"

"Splut" Zest blinked as he was hit in the face with a lemon pie.

"It's a pie gun." Sette said, smiling softly as Agito had to grip Lutecia's shoulder to keep herself from falling to the ground in laughter.

"I see..." Zest muttered and wiped his face clean. "And he was afraid of that?"

"One of the pies exploded when it hit his secretary, leaving her naked in the hallway." Sette shrugged and looked at Regisus. "I am glad that it wasn't him that got hit by that."

Megane shuddered at the thought. "So am I."

(---)

Ranma looked at Tre through the view screen and grinned at her as she and Cinque waited for Ginga to wander down to them. "Good luck!"

The two nodded at him as the view screen turned off.

"Do you think that they'll be okay?" Uno asked as Otto and Deed looked at him from another view screen, Wendi and Nove looked at the group from a different view screen than the other two were using.

"Oh, sure. They'll be fine. I promised Cinque I'd buy out the toy store for her." Ranma chuckled, who knew that Cinque would like those teddy bears so much? Oh well.

"What about us?" Otto blinked as Ranma grinned at them.

"You got the tanker?" Seeing them nod, he rubbed his hands together. "In ten minutes, you use that and spray Riot Force Six."

"But, won't they see us?" Deed asked, frowning softly at him.

"Don't worry, if anyone sees you, I'll warp you two back to base."

They nodded and the view-screen turned off.

"Doctor?" Nove asked as she and Wendi looked at him.

"Don't worry, I just need you two to back up the others." They seemed to pout, but nodded.

"Why didn't you send Dieci out?" Uno asked as Ranma grinned at her.

"Well..."

"ACK!"

Uno and Ranma blinked and turned as they saw Quattro flying past the open door, Dieci holding a giant super soaker with a turbo pump on her back, blasting her sister away.

"I told her to annoy Quattro."

"Ah..." Uno nodded. She didn't understand why the doctor was upset with Quattro, but it was amusing to watch.

(---)

Otto looked at Deed, both nodding and hitting a few buttons on the side of the tanker, the two pinched their noses as the hoses that were connected to the tanker and pointed at Riot Force Six sprayed out raw sewage.

"You know, I think this is worse than destroying the place." Otto muttered to Deed, who nodded.

(---)

Ginga blinked at the two cyborgs she saw. She had a weird feeling as she looked at them.

Tre frowned softly. Well, whatever the doctor wanted, the doctor got. Especially since he promised to do more of that stuff that drove her crazy.

Cinque said nothing, pulled out a portable rocket launcher and fired it at Ginga, who rushed away from the shot. The three cyborgs blinked as the item inside was a green ball that hit the wall, bounced off of it, bounced to the ceiling of the area that they were in and started to picking up speed, knocking things over, including the rocket launcher out of Cinque's hands before it hit another wall and flying into Ginga's gut, sending her into a wall.

Tre and Cinque both blinked as they saw Ginga get covered in a green, sticky gelled substance.

"I don't know what that stuff is, but it worked..." Tre muttered.

"The doctor called it Flubber, and said that he modified it so that it would stick to a person and trap them against a wall for hours." Cinque said, though she recalled that the doctor also said that the stuff would gum up hair badly and that if it got into your hair, you might need to use ice and peanut butter to get it out.

"Oh..." Tre nodded as the two quickly vacated the area. They were warned to not be around in case Subaru appeared.

"I have to admit..." Cinque spoke up suddenly to Tre.

"Yes?"

"This is a lot of fun."

The taller cyborg smirked and nodded. "Very much so."

(---)

Due was not having a good day. In her disguise as a brown-haired secretary for the floating brains, the TSAB's high council, she walked into the room, preparing to do her weekly cleaning and maintenance of the three brains. Idly, she wondered just who was idiotic enough to put three body-less heads in jars in charge.

"Ah, is it time?" The first one spoke to her as she nodded silently. "Good, don't disturb us."

**"Scagiletti has betrayed us! He's totally gone against our wishes!"** The second brain yelled at the other two.

_"What do you expect of someone we created, huh?_

"Fine, fine, we messed up with him. Issue an execution warrant or something."

**"You do realize that with all the mess that he's done to Mid-Childa that there's no one that isn't going to want to try and kill him?**

_"Good! Maybe that will teach him and the rest of our clones of him to not go against our orders."_

Due mentally groaned, wondering when she would get the order to kill these three. It was almost like the doctor didn't want her to kill them...

Either that or he wanted to give her a headache.

(---)

Vivio was not having a good day.

Well, it had began good enough, go to the park, spend some time with her mothers, relax. Even if her mothers were griping about Scagiletti changing his plans and moving the cradle, which should have been impossible without her there to power it.

Vivio thought that Scagiletti was looping, which wouldn't be a good thing for anyone. It probably wouldn't take him long to figure out a way to beat her mamas and really screw over Mid-Childa.

Those thoughts ended as she got hit by some strange spell that had actually sealed her ability to use her teenage form and Device before being grabbed by Nove at full speed while Wendi threw smoke bombs and an assortment of other smelly explosive things.

Well, if she was honest with herself, seeing Nanoha-mama covered in honey while bees chasing after her had been pretty funny.

Still, she was now convinced that Scagiletti was looping, and, honestly, it scared her.

(---)

"I can't believe it! They still got Vivio!" Nanoha raged, gripping Raising Heart tightly. She knew her daughter was tough, but if Scagiletti did something to her while Sacred Heart couldn't help her, then Nanoha didn't know what she could do.

Fate twitched and nodded to Nanoha. "Go wash up, I'll go talk to Hayate and see what if we can find Vivio." She still had Sacred Heart, so at least she would be easy to find if she activated it.

Nanoha grumbled, rubbing her arms and grumbling about bees.

(---)

"Seriously?" Vivio asked as she looked at Ranma, her eyes sparkling in mischievousness.

"Oh yes, I know that Fate and Nanoha are on their way, with the rest of Riot Force Six... And the cyborgs as good as they are, can't handle the heavy-hitters in that group." That was discounting the fact that at least three other members of that group were looping. "So... Care to help us out on our quest?"

"...I say yes and you let me have Quattro as my personal punching bag?"

Ranma nodded as Vivio giggled happily. "Deal!"

Dieci didn't say anything, she was just looking at the flying machine in the hangar. "Doctor..."

"Yes?"

"What is this?" Dieci pointed to the ship she was next to. It looked like a ball with wings on the side.

"It's called a TIE fighter. I modified it." Ranma grinned at the other numbers who were looking at it. "Don't worry about crashing it, it's cheap to make and you girls are tough enough to survive any crash that happens."

"So... What are we going to do with this?" Cinque asked as she looked at hers. She liked hers, it had a teddy bear design on the wings.

"Simple! They're bomber variants are used to make raids on planets and cities, destroying things. My version will have you bombing the city with various things to annoy people!"

Wendi grinned. "When can we start?"

Ranma laughed. "As soon as I drop this ship out of cloak!"

Vivio looked around. "How did you get the Saint's Cradle to fly without me powering it?"

Uno shrugged and chuckled. "The doctor is amazing."

Vivio giggled, oh, they didn't know the half of it.

"Alright, my girls! It's time! Operation Annoy the TSAB and royally piss everyone off is now underway!"

"YEAH!" Everyone cheered at the same time.

Everyone but Quattro, she was in her lab, pouting as she tried to put it back together after Sette broke it again.

(---)

Otto looked at her com-screen as she and Deed flew around in their TIE-Bombers, the two nodded at each other, sped up and started dropping their payloads onto the buildings and people down below. The doctor had said as soon as the payloads were empty that they were to head right back to the cradle, lots of fun was to be had there.

She did wonder why she got yellow paint and Deed got green paint, when the two hit, it really didn't mix well.

"Oh, wait, that was the point." Deed said to Otto's unspoken question, getting a nod from her boyish twin sister. "Man, this is going to suck for them, huh?" She giggled, both of them blinking as Tre and Sette tried to out-race each other, garbage flying out of their TIE-Bombers. Which wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't rotten fruits, vegetables, milk, moldy cheese, moldy bread and...

"Are those diapers?" Otto asked, turning a little green.

"I think so." Deed shuddered, she couldn't imagine how bad it was going to be to have to clean up after dirty diapers.

(---)

"WHOOSH!" Wendi chuckled, blinking as she saw some people standing in front of her. "Hey, Nove..."

"Yeah?"

"There's that midget-knight again. And her hammer looks pretty big right now!"

The shorter redhead, flying in her TIE-Bomber tapped her chin. "Well, what should we do?"

The two looked at each other through their view-screens, grinned and started firing all sorts of energy shots at Vita, who threw up her shields, blocking each one.

"Damn!" Nove grumbled as she saw Vita swing her hammer forward. "Wendi!" She yelped as she heard a slashing sound over her ship. "Abandon ship!"

"Right!" Wendi screamed, both of them hitting the big red buttons on their consoles, and getting warped out just before the TIE-Bombers exploded.

Sadly, because they were so close to each other, the cargo they were carrying merged together.

"...Boy am I glad that Shamal and Zafira aren't here to see this." Vita muttered, spitting out some feathers as she looked at herself.

Signum would have nodded, but she was too busy trying to get the black, sticky tar out of her ears, and the feathers away from her nose. "...Someone is going to pay for this."

That wasn't even the worst of it. Nope, the worst of it _had_ to be the fact that the tar and feathers were falling onto buildings, trees, animals and people down below.

(---)

Sein laughed as she flew around, crashing into the inept mages that tried to stop her. This was so much fun. "It's like bumper cars without the cars!" She squealed happily and blasted a few of the mages. It was weird, she was the only one who wasn't given a bomber, but the doctor promised that her TIE-fighter was special somehow.

Though, seeing the male mages suddenly stop attacking and try to get into the pants of the female mages was an incredibly funny sight, if she did say so herself. "Just what was in those guns?"

"Concentrated Pheremones." The doctor spoke up on her view-screen as he grinned at her, Uno and that girl, Vivio, standing next to him, Uno on her console and Vivio, in her Kaiser form, standing around, smirking softly. "If you were out there, they'd all try to hit on you."

Sein shuddered. "No thank you. I'd prefer it if you did that."

Ranma blinked and groaned, getting a laugh from Vivio as Uno blinked in confusion. "It... Never... Fails!" He cried out and turned off the view screen, making Sein blink in confusion.

"What was that all about?" The green-haired, modestly-sized cyborg blinked as she went about blasting various groups of mages. Ah well, this was more fun anyway.

(---)

Cinque wondered why she was flying over the residential area, and why the doctor told her to go this way. "Bombs away." She said, letting her pay-load go, only for her eye to widen and tear up as she saw hundreds of teddy bears, plushy toys and beanie babies fall to the ground.

A view screen next to her opened up, showing the doctor, Uno and Vivio. "Doctor! Doctor!" Cinque whimpered. "The fluffies!"

Ranma grinned at her. "Don't worry, Cinque. Those are just the ones that you couldn't get into your room without getting buried alive. You still have the large and cuddly ones."

Suddenly Cinque's eye sparkled. "Really?"

"Yep! I left the ones that you put eye patches on alone." Ranma smiled as Cinque suddenly squealed in delight. "Besides, Cinque, not all pranks need to be mean." Ranma chuckled. "What better way to annoy the TSAB than make them try to see if the toys are laced with explosives or other nasty stuff?" Seeing Cinque's eye tear up again, he shook his head. "They won't explode on anyone."

"Yay!" Cinque smiled happily and went back to dropping the toys all over the residential area of Midchilda.

(---)

Just why wouldn't he send in the execution orders?! It wasn't that hard to do it! Just one call, just one mention and the three brains of the TSAB would be dead. Why hadn't anyone given her the order yet? Was it so wrong?

Really, it wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't "brain jar cleaning" day.

No one had any idea just how insanely disgusting it was to clean the insides of the jars of brains.

Especially giant brains.

Due whimpered, wishing that order would come in.

(---)

Uno looked at Ranma. "I'm surprised Cinque likes those toys so much."

Ranma shrugged and smirked at her. "Everyone's got a secret fetish that they like..." He looked at Quattro, who was walking into the room. "Quattro, why isn't Due here yet?"

The glasses wearing Number blinked several times. "Ah... I forgot! Doctor! I was just so upset with your new plan that I forgot!"

Tsking at Quattro, Ranma shook his head and sat down on the throne, shaking his head. "Quattro, Quattro, Quattro... I gave you a simple, VERY simple order and you couldn't follow up on it? Don't you know what happens to bad little girls?" Seeing her shake her head, Ranma snapped his fingers, and Vivio was no longer there, she was grabbing Quattro, sitting on a chair that materialized out of nowhere, flipped the sadistic Number over her lap and started slapping her ass hard. "They get spanked!"

Uno sweat-dropped as Vivio spanked Quattro, over and over and over again. "Um, doctor..."

"Yes?"

"Isn't that a little... Rough?"

Ranma shook his head. "Not at all. She deserves it. Ah! Nove, Wendi, welcome back."

Wendi blinked and looked at Quattro as Vivio spanked her over and over again, Quattro crying out in pain and humiliation. "She likes spankings?"

"I don't think those are the same kind you gave me." Nove's eyes widened as everyone, including Vivio, who suddenly stopped, and Quattro suddenly looked at her. "AH!" She blushed hard and hid behind Wendi. "Slip of the tongue! Forget I said that!"

Shrugging, Ranma smirked as he checked on various TIE-Bombers as they made their way back. "Hmm... Sette and Tre got shot down by Fate... That has to be fate." He chuckled at the double-meaning. At least they had warped back to base after getting shot down. "Deed and Otto made it back, along with Dieci..." Dieci looked a little green, maybe he shouldn't have given her the stink bombs to fire, those things were gross. "Sein and Cinque are heading back here..."

"So, what do you want us to do, doctor?" Wendi giggled as she watched Sein and Cinque both get shot down, warping back to base.

"Well... Ah, Zest, Lutecia, Megane, Agito, welcome!"

"Hello." Zest said, wondering why the Saint Kaiser was spanking Quattro, but shrugged it off. "You had a shuttle ready for us?"

"Oh yes, not like Janeway's going to miss it. But, you might want to stick around, the fun's about to begin."

"Really?" Zest asked, sweating slighlty as Ranma started to laugh sinisterly.

Ranma nodded, chuckling as the last of the Numbers, other than Due, gathered into the throne room. "Oh yes, yes... First, I'm sure that everyone, except for Vivio here, is wondering just what's going on, huh?" Seeing nods all around, Ranma stood up, a holographic image of several worlds, all identical in look appearing in the middle of the room. "Alright, let me explain. A long, long time ago, the Multiverse got a bad case of the hiccups."

"How can a universe hiccup?" Lutecia asked softly.

"Ah, just a way to explain this, that's all." Ranma smiled at her softly, getting a nod from the little girl. "The multiverse hiccuped and many, many worlds got affected by it. And by world, I mean universe. Normally these universes, even this one, are kept separate from each other. However, this hiccup did something that shouldn't be possible."

"Did it make things more fun?" Wendi asked as she and Sein grinned at the thought.

"For awhile, yes. But what happened wasn't normal. Time wasn't going forward enough."

"Huh?" Everyone blinked as Ranma nodded and pointed to the various worlds.

"Yep. This world here... this is my home universe... Time there flows for exactly 18 months, unless I die in it, and then resets back to the beginning." He pointed at another random world. "This is your universe. It goes for anywhere from 10 to 16 years, generally ending around 14 years after it starts... Which was 10 years ago."

"So we're all stuck in these loops?" Zest asked, blinking as Ranma nodded.

"Yep. But only a few people know. Myself, Vivio, Nanoha, Fate all know. But so does Subaru and Hayate, at least on this world, this time."

"And now we do..."

Ranma nodded at Cinque. "At least until the next loop, then you'll all forget." He saw the looks of sadness in all their eyes and sighed. "I'm sorry, the odds of anyone at all waking up to know what's going on is 1 million to 1. Literally."

"Doctor..." Sein spoke up, raising her hand. "How long have you been looping then?"

"Well, let's just say that I can spend a loop in this universe, as a woman, replacing Nanoha and I'd consider it a very short amount of time passed."

"Oh..."

"So... How long until it stops hiccuping?" Uno asked as Ranma shrugged, turned off the projection and sat back down.

"No clue. Now then, Quattro, stay on the floor, Vivio, stand by my side, Uno, stay where you are. The rest of you, get in the dark corner.

"Um, dad..." Sette blinked as she walked up to him.

"Yes?"

"Even if I won't remember this... Thank you." She said and hugged him tenderly. "I had a lot of fun."

Ranma nodded and blinked as Tre grabbed him by his work coat, pulled him up and kissed him hungerly on the lips.

"That's for all those wonderful sessions, doctor."

Ranma chuckled as he sat back down, Nove and Wendi both hugging him, before they were joined by Otto and Deed. "Uh..."

"This is the most fun we've had ever!" Wendi grinned at him.

Ranma chuckled as the four got off of him. He blinked as Cinque jumped in his lap, wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him on the cheek. "Cinque?"

"You're the best."

Ranma looked at Vivio, who shrugged. She had never known the Numbers to act like this before. Sein grinned at him and gave him a quick peck on the cheek in thanks.

Ranma looked at Dieci, who was the last one to do anything. "Dieci?"

"Thank you, doctor, for letting us all have so much fun." She smiled softly.

Ranma nodded, blinking as Lutecia stepped in front of him. "Yes?"

"Thank you for fixing my mother."

Ranma nodded and told her to go to her mother.

He grinned as the door to the throne room suddenly exploded in, in a wash of pink and yellow. "Ladies! Welcome!" He chuckled as Nanoha, Fate, Hayate and Subaru stared at him dumbfoundedly.

_"RANMA?!"_ The four looping members of Riot Force Six yelled in surprise as they looked at him, sitting on the throne, Vivio at his right, Uno at his left, and Quattro, face down on the ground, bald and crying.

Quattro looked up and ran towards Nanoha. "Help me! The doctor's a monster, he tortures IEEE!" She yelped as Nanoha casually backhanded her with Raising Heart, pink magical energy flowing over her body for good measure and sending her into a wall, unconscious.

"...This is going to be a hell of a story, isn't it?" Fate asked, getting a grin and nod from Ranma. Why did she have a bad feeling right now?

(---)

Nanoha was _not_ having a good day. It wasn't a simple bad hair day, or a day where everything she did tended to explode in her face, she had plenty of loops where that happened, thank you very much, but, it was a bad day. First her daughter gets kidnapped. Okay, happened before, wasn't too unusual.

The fact that it was Nove and Wendi who kidnapped her? Not too unusual, but it didn't happen when Vivio had Sacred Heart. The fact that she got covered in honey and stung by bees? That was unusual.

The Saint's Cradle flying around even before Vivio got kidnapped? Even more unusual, which confirmed that one of the other Anchors had to be in charge of the cyborgs this time around. Which one, sadly, was still a matter that was unknown to them.

As they stormed the cradle, Nanoha was only surprised that the Numbers and combat drones hadn't taken the field yet to try and destroy the city, and that the Saint's Cradle seemed quiet content to hover just above the city, only attacking mages, OTHER than her group as they got too close.

"Hayate-san, Nanoha-san, Fate-san, what do we do?" Erio asked as the Forwards, Hayate, Reinforce Zwei, Nanoha and Fate stormed the Cradle.

Hayate pointed down the hallway. "The throne room is that way." If the ship was ascending, she would have gotten Vita to join the group inside instead of trying to stop the Numbers with Signum outside. "Erio, Caro, Teana, I want you three to stay together and make sure to take anyone out that you see."

They nodded and turned to take off down the hallway, Teana turned to Subaru, looking at her nervously. The cyborg smiled at her, getting a soft flush from Teana, as she turned her head, wondering what Subaru was smiling about.

"Why didn't you send me with them?" Subaru asked, blinking as she went with Nanoha, Fate, Hayate, and Rein towards the throne room, along the way, Rein and Hayate unisoned together, causing Hayate's hair to turn blond and her eyes blue, hoping to be able to deal with whichever Anchor was there messing up their universe.

"Because if this is someone like Aizen, we're going to need all the help we can get." Fate muttered, groaning as the hallways were covered in Type IV Gadget Drones. "These ones are annoying."

The others nodded.

It was a quick and destructive battle.

Unfortunately, it was also very messy and disgusting as the drones exploded with a variety of hidden nasties inside.

Subaru was pulling leeches off of Nanoha's back as they stopped to get the worst of the stuff off of them. "Who is in charge of this? It can't be Scagiletti. He was never this smart."

"Unless he's looping." Fate muttered with a slight scowl.

"Let's just hope that it's not Aizen in there." Hayate muttered, looping or not, that guy was one of the most dangerous beings out there for all the Anchors and loopers to deal with. One of the five most dangerous things that any anchor or looper had run into, ever.

They nodded and Nanoha and Fate blasted down the doors to the throne room. When they got there, they were expecting nearly anything. The key word being nearly.

Seeing Ranma in Jail Scagiletti's clothes, Vivio and Uno standing by his sides and a bald Quattro on the floor, well, that wasn't what they were expecting. "What is going on here?!"

Ranma chuckled and stood up. "Welcome. We all have a role to play after all."

Fate narrowed her eyes slightly. "Just what do you mean?"

"Well, it's simple. I replaced Jail Scagiletti for this loop and decided that since it was too late to just go and stop the plan, that I would just change it to something a bit more useable and fun." He shrugged unconcerned as the four glared at him. If he hadn't been looping as long as he was, he would be in serious trouble at that moment.

Uno leaned close to Vivio. "Why isn't he worried about this?"

"Well, before the universes started to merge and loop together, he had been looping in his home universe for hundreds of thousands of years." She whispered back and seeing the nod from the tall secretary, she continued. "The problem was, unlike most of the other universe out there, he had nothing to do but train himself in martial arts and learn from books and experience. There was no real enemy for him to defeat and anyone that could challenge him at first quickly fell behind too fast. And unlike the rest of the universes, his loops were so short that it didn't make sense to make a deep connection with people when they would forget in a little over a year."

"Nothing to do, no one to confide in, so he just threw himself into training and learning?" Uno asked, blinking as Vivio nodded sadly.

"Yeah... Uncle Ranma had it pretty hard. Actually, all the first seven loopers had it real hard until the others in their universe started to loop as well..."

"First... Seven?" Uno blinked a few times.

"Uncle Ranma, Harry Potter, Shinji Ikari, Naruto Uzumaki, Ichigo Kurosaki, Usagi Tsukino and Lina Inverse were the first seven that were looping." Though the circumstances around Lina's looping was weird, no one knew the exact reason why she was stuck in these infinite time loops.

"Oh..."

The other Numbers, Zest, Lutecia, Agito and Megane blinked as they listened in on that. They didn't want to bring attention to themselves at that moment.

The group turned back to the escalating conflict between the TSAB-loopers and Ranma.

"Oh, I have one last bit of information for you four." Ranma grinned at them, causing them to gulp slightly. "Well, not for Subaru," the girl in question sighed out in relief, "as of 20 minutes ago, the TSAB high council released all control of the TSAB to the three most capable of handling the problems that are to come in the following years. The order is effective immediately and cannot be revoked for any reason."

"And they are..?" Nanoha was getting a very bad feeling about all of this.

"One Nanoha Takamachi, one Fate Testarossa-Harloawn, and one Hayate Yagami. Congrats, you three are now in charge of the TSAB, of course, that means a lot of paper-work."

"No!" Everyone blinked and looked at Nanoha, who started glowing pink. "No paperwork! I had enough of that when I replaced Tsunade in that loop that one time! NO PAPERWORK! DIVINE!"

"Summoning!" Ranma glowed and slammed his hands down.

"BUSSS...OOH CRAP!" Nanoha's, and everyone else's, except Quattro, she was still down and out, eyes widened as they saw what Ranma had summoned.

"...You know, after all this time, you'd think I would be able to summon something OTHER than Godzilla. People I can summon just fine, items, fine, but creatures? It's always Godzilla, even when I try to summon a fly!"

**"GRAAAAAAAAHHH!!!"** Godzilla screamed and took a step to the side, crushing Quattro under his foot.

Ranma shrugged, no big loss there. "Well, I'm leaving." He said, a blue magic circle appearing under him, the group in the corner, Vivio, Uno, Nanoha, Fate, Hayate, Subaru and the other three inside the Cradle.

"Where are we..."

"Anywhere but here." Ranma said as everyone but Godzilla disappeared in a blue flash of light.

The group rematerialized near a log cabin that was next to a river and trees. "Where are we?" Teana asked as she looked around. One moment she was on the Cradle, the next she was here.

Ranma shrugged. "Eh, random place."

"...You summoned Godzilla to Midchilda and you won't even deal with it?!" Hayate yelled at him.

Ranma chuckled and nodded. "Oh, don't worry, the longest he'll stick around before disappearing is about a month." He waved off the dumb-founded looks he was getting and took his white coat off. "Look, I could have fought him, a grand, glorious battle that would awe, inspire and terrify all of you that would eventually end up with me winning, but that would take too long and cause too much damage."

Nanoha sighed and grumbled, as long as she didn't have to do paper work of that sort of magnitude, she could deal with it.

Nove scratched her head. "So... What do we do?"

Ranma shrugged at her. "Whatever you want. I dunno how long this loop will last. So, have some fun." He smiled at them.

"YAY!"

Ranma did feel bad, the Numbers really got screwed over by these loops, since they were bad guys that became good guys, but it took so long for them to come into the picture.

Oh well, at least one loop where they all ended up better was good.

(---)

Ranma groaned as he woke up. Genma must have hit him harder than he thought.

"I don't know about this one, dad, he's already got his own harem." He heard Akane's voice grumbling.

Ranma blinked, harem? Well, sure, Skuld was his girlfriend and he slept with Lina often enough and Urd, Nanoha and Fate were his three best female friends but he didn't think that was enough for a harem. _Since when is there someone taller than Genma around here? And why the heck am I male this time?_ He thought in wonder as he looked at the shadows on the ground, elbowed Genma, stood up and turned around.

In the yard trying to get inside as the rain started up were people he never thought he'd see. "Uno, Tre, Cinque, Sein, Sette, Otto, Nove, Wendi, Dieci, Deed?"

"You missed two and four." Nabiki spoke up, getting a look from everyone. She shrugged. "He counted to twelve in Italian, he missed Due and Quattro."

"They aren't here." Cinque said as she slipped by Ranma.

Ranma shook his head. Well, this was going to be an interesting loop, that was for sure.

Which was made more interesting as Tre picked him up and kissed him for all he was worth. He made a mental note to do that treatment to her more often if it made her so relaxed like this.

____________

End


	2. Numbers In Nerima

Time Loops.

Numbers in Nerima.

I own neither Ranma 1/2 nor Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha.

This was supposed to be a one-shot story. RadiantBeam convinced me to let the Numbers come to Nerima at the end of the story.

Then, a mutual friend of ours, Fuyu no Sora, convinced me to go an extra mile and write out their (mis)adventures in Nerima. Thank both of them if you like this.

* * *

Tre frowned, even as she panted softly, someone was trying to get into the room, thankfully Ranma had built several extra rooms to the Tendo house for her sisters to sleep in, but she and Uno had taken the guest room with Ranma. Standing up, ignoring her nudity, she looked at the window as a young boy slipped in. "Who are you?" She asked, narrowing her eyes and preparing her IS for battle.

The boy's eyes widened at the nudity, the smell that was coming off of her and the fluids he could see dripping down from between her legs, nope, there was no doubt just what she was doing before he came into the room. His eyes rolled up into the back of his head and his nose shot out a blood shot so powerful he flew backwards and outside.

"Nnngh... Tre.... Get back to bed... Not in the mood for another round with you and Uno." Ranma muttered against Uno's chest, hugging and cuddling up to her.

"Hey!" She pouted, crawling back into bed, pulling the sheets over her and sandwiching Ranma between her and Uno's breasts again.

The next morning Sette rubbed her eyes as she walked from her room down the hallway with nothing more than a small, well, for her, she was rather tall and busty after all, towel over her breasts. "Thought I heard something last night." She muttered and opened the bathroom door to take a bath. She blinked as she looked at the sheer size of the bath, it had to be larger than the whole house. "How did this get here?" She wondered, dropping her towel as she began to scrub off.

"Ah, Sette!" Sein grinned at her from in the bathtub. "Isn't Ranma great? He said he got the idea from someone named Washu, a giant bath for all the girls in the house!" The blue-green-haired cyborg kicked her feet up and down, splashing water all over the bath-tub. "Honestly, this is much better than spending time in prison and then going to work for the church." Ranma had filled them in on what their lives would have become in the normal time-line, they honestly liked this looping business better and better. Plus Sette, Otto and Deed all had fun personalities!

Sette nodded as she washed her pink hair. "Yeah, I'm glad myself."

The door opened as Otto, Deed and Nabiki wandered in. The middle Tendo sister looked around, snapping awake. "Gee, Ranma, you _had_ to go all-out here, didn't you?" She groused, though she knew that the water bill wasn't going to be high, since this was an alternate dimension from the rest of the house. Lessons from Washu always did pay off, after all.

The others turned to her, blinking. "Wait, you know what's going on?" Otto asked, confused, she thought only Ranma had been looping.

Smirking, Nabiki nodded. "Yep. Been looping longer than anyone but Ranma around here. And I've met you girls before in previous loops." She still wondered why she replaced Teana in that one loop. Subaru was so sad in that loop that it almost made _her_ cry. Still, she got Cross Mirage out of it... Then Brianna Diggers had to get _her_ hands on it. Nabiki still wasn't sure about having an overdrive being an arm-attached gatling gun, even if it did have a ton of fire-power to it.

The four blinked and nodded as the new girls went about cleaning up. Nabiki took a good look at Otto and shook her head. "Always wondering if you were a boy or a girl."

Otto pouted and cupped her chest. "I can't help it that I was designed with such a small chest." She nearly started crying before Deed hugged her and glared at Nabiki, who held her hands up innocently.

"Hey, sorry, I know it's a touchy subject. You always wore such baggy clothes that it was hard to tell. You're kind of cute though." Nabiki had mellowed out a lot during the loops, it probably didn't hurt that she had nothing to gain by being mean to people, since everyone had a damn long memory for slights against them. Normally the loopers and Anchors were quick to forgive, but that didn't mean that they forgot.

Otto blushed softly. "Thanks." She didn't know what to think about that compliment as Nabiki shook her head at her.

"Don't get the wrong idea here." Nabiki said before dousing herself with cool water and then jumping into the bath-tub. "I'm not into girls. Even ones who can pass as a boy."

Otto pouted and wondered if maybe she needed to talk to Ranma about this, he knew about relationships, maybe he could help her out with this.

And thus, Nabiki sighed, not knowing what was about to befall her.

It didn't take long for the doors to the bath to open up and Dieci and Cinque, both wrapped in towels, to wander in silently.

Sette looked at the two, scratching her head. "Where's Nove and Wendi?" She didn't need to ask about Tre or Uno, since the two of them had taken up residence in Ranma's room, and the other sisters all knew better than to go in there, since Quattro had done that once, demanding to know what the screaming was about. _Just what was that thing going "peebo" anyway?_ She wondered, seeing as how it jumped on Quattro's back and exploded, none of the sisters ever wanted to check on Tre or Uno when they were screaming for more from her father.

Even if she was the only one, Sette thought of Ranma as her father, though maybe Otto and Deed did as well, they were a lot of fun to play and spar with at times.

"They're..." Cinque began, but stopped as there was a rush of air, two figures running past her and made her and Dieci drop their towels. "Right here, apparently." She said and closed the door behind her before someone spied on the naked girls.

"Oh, come on, Nove!" The taller of the two grinned nervously as she was pinned to the wall by a glaring Nove. "It wasn't that bad."

"Not that bad? You pinched my ass! That hurt!" Nove yelled back. "I'd pinch yours, but you'd enjoy that!" Wendi grinned at her, not disputing what was said.

"Looks like it hurt." Nabiki muttered and whistled, causing the two to blink and look at her. "As much as I'd love to see two incredibly good-looking naked redheads go at it, and, Nove, you might need some lotion for that spot, I would rather like to be able to take a bath in peace, you want to fight, go outside, we don't need the house wrecked." Stretching, she ignored the looks she was getting. "What? Ranma and Akane did that enough before we started looping, I don't need this place to get wrecked any worse than it can on a good day. The crazies haven't shown up yet, so this place isn't going to fall apart soon." At least not for a few days, when Ryoga showed up, then Shampoo a couple of weeks later. Then again, it had been a couple days, since Ranma had taken the time to build the extra rooms and not go to school. Not that she blamed him, she only went sometimes out of boredom, plus it was more fun after Ranma showed up, if he went. Maybe she should find a way to get Kuno to come to the house soon?

"Not that, what about going at it?" Nove asked as she put Wendi down, getting a kiss on her cheek for that. Nove had to push her off before she got a little too into it, and blushed as her hands pushed against the most obvious place available. Stupid perky, firm hand-holds. She thought irritably to herself.

"Eh? Oh, that.." Nabiki shrugged and sunk herself further into the water. "Ranma can turn into an incredibly hot redheaded girl at times, and there's been clones of him running around, it was always fun to watch." If her eyes were open and looking to the side, she might have seen Otto's look of interest at that.

A while later, after Kasumi had called everyone down, the Numbers, dressed in the clothes that they had either borrowed from Kasumi, Nabiki or Akane, or the clothes they had when they got to the Tendo Dojo, all sat around the table eating.

"Hey, dad, what are we going to do today?" Sette asked, looking at the slightly tired, slightly grinning Ranma, in some sweats and a shirt, next to him was Uno and Tre, both in bathrobes and nothing else, well, as far as anyone could tell, nothing else on but robes that barely covered their chests and hips.

"Well, after breakfast, I think it's time for you girls to get some clothes and other things." Ranma said, blinking at Otto, who seemed to fidget slightly. "Otto, do you need something?"

"Ah... Can we..." She pointed at the kitchen, getting a nod from Ranma, who looked at Kasumi, who nodded pleasantly.

"Go ahead, no one will bother you, right?" The eldest Tendo said, smiling in such a way that no one would dare argue with her, even Tre and Uno couldn't find it in them to disagree.

Once in the kitchen, Ranma looked at the blushing, fidgeting Otto. "...You know, right now, I want to hug you tightly and call you all sorts of cute names, Otto."

"Ah..." The flat-chested girl whimpered and looked down.

"It's okay." Ranma smiled at her and put his hands on her shoulder. "Come on, what's wrong?"

"Um... Doc, err.. Ranma, I..." She blinked as he shook his head.

"Call me Doctor, or Ranma, whatever feels more comfortable for you." She nodded at him. "Now, what's wrong?"

"Well, that girl... Nabiki..."

"She make fun of you?" Ranma blinked as Otto shook her head. "What then?"

"She called me… cute..."

Ranma blinked, before a small grin came to his face. "Well, well, my dear Otto, it seems that you have a crush on Nabiki." He grinned at her blushing face. "Don't worry, I'll get you set up on a date with her."

"But, she says that she's not into girls." Otto pouted softly and Ranma chuckled at her, pulling the girl into a hug. "Doctor?"

"Don't worry about that. She might say that, but she's quite willing to be in a relationship with a girl if the girl isn't scum and is a good person, and you're both." Ranma grinned and let go of the hug, oh, he could easily set up a date for Otto. "We'll work on that in a bit."

The shorter girl nodded as Ranma led her back into the dining area. "Okay, girls, finish up and we'll go shopping."

"Yeah!" Sein, Wendi and Nove cheered as one as all they and their sisters started to eat more. Kasumi was surprised, even though she had seen it for three days now, how much the girls could just eat.

Akane grumbled and left for school, upset that she couldn't get any of them to go with her, though considering that only the three girls with the flattest chests could wear her shirts, well, she felt rather upset and jealous and didn't want to be around them at all.

"Saotome, can I speak with you?" Nabiki said as she walked to the dojo. "Alone." Ranma sighed and walked with her, stopping in the dojo.

"What?"

"What's your game, Saotome? You generally aren't this nice of a person in the loops." Nabiki gave him a flat look as Ranma shrugged.

"Well, at first, it was just for fun. The girls saw me as Scagiletti, the one who made them, it was easy to get most of them to just go along with what I had planned, pull some pranks, cause mayhem, don't fight, it was easy." He took a deep breath and sighed, closing his eyes.

"What changed?"

"Sette, the tall pink-haired girl, she called me dad. She called me dad, Nabiki..." Opening his eyes and seeing the stunned look on her face, he nodded. "You and I both know until the loops end I can't have children, no one awake in the loops can." For someone like Nabiki who had knew Ranma for millennia, the sheer regret radiating from his words was palpable.

"But she... Sette knows what's going on now... She's looping... She still calls me dad... Otto, Deed, they look to me like a father, it, it's different than just using them to have fun." He sighed and closed his eyes once again, a half pained, half hopeful expression on his face. "Yeah, at first it was just fun, but... But after Sette said that... And the rest were all having so much fun and were so happy..." He stopped once again and looked Nabiki right in the eyes and for the first time in very, very long while, she saw the real Ranma Saotome, oldest of the Anchors and not the mask he had build around himself to keep his sanity.

"I promised myself... I promised myself that if they ever remembered, the next time I saw them that I would help them have as much fun, as much freedom as they wanted, no matter the efforts I had to put into it."

Starring into the eyes of her friend, part-time enforced mentor and oldest companion in this ever repeating hell, the eldest Looping Tendo sister came to the conclusion that this one oath that not even the Ultimate Force of the Multiverse could ever break.

She pitied Scagiletti for the mad scientist had no idea just what was about to hit him (repeatedly) in the face.

"You're a stand-up guy, Saotome..." she lowly comment, her mind cast back to the critical event that more then any other had shaped Ranma into the man he was today. Done a lot of thinking after that debacle so long ago, huh?" she whispered.

Seeing him nod and sigh, Nabiki shook her head and smiled softly. "Fine, fine... Whatever, I was just curious." She started to walk back to the house pensive, Ranma following her.

As they came back, the oppressive aura that hanged between them dissipate, a smile gracing Ranma's face when he saw the assembled girls, ready to go.

Absentmindedly, Nabiki wondered how much of it was the mask. But the more she looked at it, the less she saw the mask in it.

"Well, girls, let's go." He chuckled, nodding to Uno, who was in her secretary outfit and Tre in her spandex suit.

They barely had the time to exit the Tendo property when a shout dripping in pure unaltered anger stopped them.

"RAAAANNNNMMMMAAA!" Ranma blinked and looked into the yard. "Huh? Ryoga?" He looked at the bedraggled lost boy, behind him, Genma in panda form was holding up a sign about some nonsense about teaching his worthless son a lesson. "I don't have time to play with you." He tsked at them before turning back, intent on ignoring the two bubbling annoyance.

"You think... That I'm playing!?" Ryoga roared and rushed forward.

Unamused, Ranma merely turned his head looked back at them, his hands still firmly tucked in his pockets. His eyes glinted a cold blue and a sardonic smirk twisted his features.

Ryoga never did understood what happened to him. One moment he was rushing forward, intent on crushing his hated nemesis' head to a pulp, the next, he was on his knee, sweet dripping from the pore of his body, an unquenchable FEAR twisting his entrails his vision narrowing on Ranma.

It was like his limbs were made of lead, his breath was coming in short gasp and adrenaline was flooding his body, his brain locked between the two most basic instinct, fight or flight.

For a moment, Ryoga had the impression he the basic outline of a great feline, its body intertwined with that of his rival.

And then...it stopped. _Did I...did I dream all that?_ He thought feverishly.

Looking around himself, he saw that it had certainly been no dream as the panda was likewise picking himself up, a look of wariness clearly visible.

And while none of the girl had been driven to the ground, all of them were starring at Ranma with look varying between surprise, wonder, awe and contemplation.

Ranma chuckled and looked at the others around him. "Sorry, been a long time since I did that." He walked to Ryoga and lifted him up, grinning at him. "Look, Ryoga, I can do that to you with ease, do you really want to fight me?"

Ryoga grumbled, he might have been bull-headed and stupid, but he wasn't that stupid. "Fine..."

"Look, Ryoga, you want to show up and fight, that's fine, just don't attack me in the middle of the night or first thing in the morning, send me a letter or something." Ranma rolled his eyes as Ryoga dusted himself off. "Actually..." Ranma turned to look at Nove, Wendi and Deed, a plan forming in his mind. "Nah, nevermind, not right now." He shook his head. "But, you can come back any time, I'll have someone to spar with you any time you want a good fight." He chuckled and motioned for the cyborgs to go with him.

"GROWF!" The panda jumped in front of him, waving a sign. 'Where are you going, boy?'

"Boy, Genma, you don't pay attention, do you? I'm going shopping for clothes for my girls, so, out of the way." He kicked the panda in the gut, sending it up into the air and out of the area. "Shall we?"

---

It hadn't taken long for the rather large group to arrive at a nearby mall, where the ten cyborgs rushed in, looking for clothes, the only thing Ranma said was to not rip, tear or otherwise damage anything.

Not that he was against that as he sat down on a couch near the front himself, but this was a loop where they could have fun, he had done damn near everything he could do in Nerima. Leaning back, he closed his eyes, drifting off slightly.

"Hey! Nove!" Wendi called out, grinning as she held up some nearly transparent light red sleep-wear. "I think this would look perfect for you."

Nove shook her head, fighting off a blush. "No thanks." She muttered and walked down to the leotards, blinking as she saw a deep blue one that looked almost armored. Shrugging, she went to the changing rooms to try it on. Ranma had stated that their spandex suits weren't needed anymore. They were their own people now.

"Whee!" Nove stopped on her way to the changing rooms, blinking as Otto and Deed ran through the clothing racks, spinning them around and around as they ran around, Cinque was looking through other clothing racks, blinking as Sette picked her up and helped her look at the ones on the higher shelves.

Nove shrugged and opened the changing room door, her eyes widening as she saw Dieci inside, completely naked as she changed. It wouldn't be so bad, since Dieci had her back to Nove, but that mirror on the other side of the room showed all of Dieci's talents entirely to anyone who happened to walk in by accident. "Ah... Sorry." She gulped and closed the door, her face turning redder than her hair. She had seen Dieci naked before, it was just embarrassing to walk in on her when she was changing after all. She was surprised that the door wasn't locked, but that wasn't important. She shook her head and took the next door, blinking as Tre stopped her, handed her a piece of clothing and walked off.

Nove shrugged, she honestly didn't understand Tre some days. Stepping inside, she closed the door and stripped naked, before pulling the leotard on, blinking as she adjusted it. The thing was a deep blue, strap-less, leaving the top half of her breasts bared for the world to see, not that she minded, it looked good on her. Turning around and glancing over her shoulder, she blushed slightly as it didn't cover her entire rear-end, still, it made her look good. She looked at the article of clothing that Tre had given her, a short-sleeved jacket that she slipped onto her shoulders. The thing was short, and it wouldn't close without squeezing her breasts tightly. It still gave her a small sense of modesty as it covered most of what the leotard didn't on her breasts. She did a small spin and smiled softly. "This looks good." She muttered, nodding to herself, she was going to make sure that Ranma bought this for her. She needed some accessories to it, but the basic look looked good. Stripping down, she put it to the side, making a note to make sure that he bought it for her.

Meanwhile Deed was playing dress-up on Otto in another changing room, both girls giggling as they put on weirder and funnier outfits. "Otto the biker punk." She giggled as she finished putting on the leather outfit for the more boyish girl, dressed in a bandanna, sunglasses, leather jeans and a sleeve-less leather jacket with a blue shirt underneath.

Smirking, the short girl crossed her arms, trying to look tough. "Hey, what's up?" She tried to emulate a deeper male voice, getting Deed, dressed in her bra and panties, to nearly fall over laughing.

Otto stopped trying to look tough as she giggled softly. "I rather like this. Think the doctor will let me have it?"

Deed nodded as she put on a pair of tight blue jeans, a short-sleeved shirt and a jean jacket, before looking into the mirror, blinking and leaning against Otto. "...We look like a biker couple."

Otto blinked and shook her head. "Nah, it doesn't look good on you. You would look better in a dress."

"You think so?" Deed blinked in confusion as Otto nodded, the two changing clothes and trying on different things. Some things they agreed on, other things they both agreed would look better on someone else, especially with Deed's long, brown hair clashing with some of the "tough girl" outfits they tried on her. Otto, on the other hand, looked damn good in the more "punk" outfits that they tried.

Just for fun, Deed had slipped out just long enough to grab a short tuxedo and had Otto put it on. The long-haired girl had never blushed so hard in her life. "Wow... Otto... If I didn't know better, I would swear that you're a guy right now. You look good."

Otto smiled and wondered if they had more clothes like this.

(---)

Ranma was startled awake as someone shook his shoulder. "Huh?" He blinked as Nabiki looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "Hey, Nabs..."

"I'm surprised you let your guard down."

"Nah, if you had any hostile intent, I would have reacted." He muttered and stretched slightly. Looking around, he smiled as he saw the girls going to town with the clothing. "It's good to see them having fun."

"Think you can afford this?" She asked, blinking as a cloaked figure walked in, handed Ranma a wallet, then left. "...Who?"

"Just a clone I had dress up turn some of my gold into cash." Ranma shrugged and smirked as he looked around. It was so good to see the girls having fun. "Don't you have school?"

"Don't you?" She shot back, getting a laugh from the two of them. Considering that the both of them could make things that would make them both insanely rich and famous, school was such a bore and only done when they had nothing else to do.

It didn't take long for the girls to get their clothes bundled together, most of them wearing various simple outfits, save for Cinque, who was wearing a blue skirt, sleeveless top, black leggings and brown boots, smiling softly at him; and Uno, the light-purple haired woman was wearing her secretary outfit. Tre was wearing a fairly thick blue sleeveless shirt that was skin-tight and black pants.

Wendi was wearing some biker shorts and a halter-top, showing off all of her curves. Looking at it, one had to wonder just how she got it on in the first place, it looked almost painted on. Nove was wearing a red t-shirt and a loose pair of shorts, while Dieci was wearing a brown long-sleeved shirt and snug blue jeans.

Otto was wearing a black shirt and light blue shorts that went down past her knees. Deed was wearing a light teal button-up shirt and a brown skirt combination while Sette wore loose-legged brown pants and a multi-color t-shirt, "tye-dye", Nabiki supplied as she realized what it was, and a bandanna in her hair that matched her shirt. Sein opted for a pair of jeans and a blue-green shirt.

Ranma looked at the casheer, wondering if it was okay for them to wear the clothes already. "Don't worry." The lady smiled at him. "I already rang them up... And all of these clothes..." There was a lot of clothes, not that Ranma or Nabiki were surprised by that, there.

"Saotome, you do have a plan, right?" Nabiki muttered to him as she watched the prices on the clothes go up and up and up as they were rang up. "How are you getting this all home?"

He rolled his eyes. "Clone express." He muttered as the final articles of clothes were rang up. Handing the lady far more than it was worth, he and the other cyborgs started to vacate the store with their goods.

"Uh, sir... Your change..."

Ranma waved it off. "Keep it." It wouldn't do her any good in the long-run, but maybe she could have some fun until the world reset.

Nabiki raised an eyebrow as there were several pops around them, Ranma's clones appearing, taking the clothes and running back to the dojo. "You just gave her 70,000 yen to play with."

"Like I ever needed it, Nabs." Ranma rolled his eyes. "Okay now then... Huh?" He blinked as he realized that Sein, Cinque and Sette had disappeared.

Wendi giggled and pointed to the toy story, Nove, Otto and Deed were following them in.

Shrugging, Ranma decided to go in as well, it wasn't like he had much else to do.

Though, he had a bad feeling for some reason. He just couldn't figure out why.

(---)

Cinque knew exactly what she wanted, she needed Sette's help to get it, since Sette could reach up there and she couldn't. It was amusing for most people watching, as the silver-haired eye-patched girl dragged the far taller pink-haired girl with her through the store to the stuffed animal collection.

Pointing up, Cinque smiled at Sette, who stared at what she wanted. "You sure?" Seeing her nod, Sette shrugged, grabbed the stuffed animal and pulled it down. "Here.. A genuine "Bonta-kun" replica." The thing was slightly taller than Nove, though considering she was the second shortest of her sisters, it wasn't a big deal. But Cinque, the shortest of all her sisters, was absolutely tiny compared to the thing.

Though, considering that Cinque smiled happily and hugged the Bonta-kun doll, Sette supposed it didn't matter.

(---)

Ranma looked around, blinking as Sein was with Dieci, both of them looking over the various board and card games. Still, he couldn't help but wonder why he had a bad feeling. Seeing something catch his eye to the side, he groaned, now he knew why.

He just hoped that something stupid didn't... Oh, who was he kidding?

Still, there was no hurry. He just wondered how massive the explosions were going to be.

(---)

Sette had turned away, just for a moment as she looked at the toys on the racks. Seeing a small panda, she wondered why she felt the urge to buy it and throw darts at it when she got home, or let Cinque use her throwing knives on it. Something about it annoyed her... Maybe it was because of that stupid panda that bothered her "dad"? She wasn't sure.

Still, as she turned away, she heard a voice, an annoying, sugar-filled, sweet and skin-crawling voice. "Antonette! Antonette!" The voice called happily. Turning, Sette's eyes widened as the Bonta-kun doll that Cinque had been hugging was suddenly taken from her, leaving her on her butt.

"Antonette! You're mine now!" The voice revealed itself to be a small, petite girl in a pink dress, long curly brown hair and blue eyes as she hugged the giant teddy bear to herself. "No one shall have you but me! Azusa Shiratori!"

Cinque would be blinking, but since her right eye was missing and behind an eyepatch, she settled for winking a few times. "You... Give back Bonta-kun!"

"No! Antonette is mine!" She squealed and hugged the thing closer to her.

"Give..." Cinque's eye flashed dangerously as several knifes appeared in her hand automatically. "Back..." There was genuine anger in her voice, which was something very few people could actually claim to cause her. "Bonta-kun!" She threw her knives at the girl, trying very carefully to not harm the teddy bear.

"No!" She yelled and ran way as the knives hit the ground. "Antonette is mine! Mine!"

Watching, Sette sweat-dropped and looked up, grimacing. No wonder Cinque was so mad. It was the last one in stock. "Hey, Cinque, wait..." She winced as the short, silver-haired girl ran after the kleptomaniac, pulling her knives out of the ground and throwing them at Azusa.

"Rumble Detonator." Cinque said, her vision nearly red. No one, but NO ONE, took her fuzzies away and got away with it!

Sette winced as there were several explosions in the store, people running and screaming, crying about bombs or something like that. Which probably wasn't too far off from the truth, now that she thought about it. Sighing, she caught up to Cinque, who was pulling a burnt and damaged Bonta-kun doll, the right side of its face was burned off and the left foot was damaged, there was stuffing leaking out as Cinque hugged it and walked away, sniffling softly.

Sette ran up to Cinque, but not before kicking Azusa away, trying to calm her down. "Um, dad..." She saw Ranma sighing as he caught up to them.

"Come on, let's go back to the dojo..." Ranma shook his head, making sure to leave money for the bear and the repairs by the register. "And you, register-boy, don't be so paranoid, this is Nerima after all." He rolled his eyes, blinking as Sein ran through the walls, literally, with a few games. Sighing, he tossed some more money onto the small pile and left, Sette and Cinque flanking his sides.

Inside the store, Azusa groaned and stood up. "One-eye girl, I will not forget this! I, Azusa Shiratori, will never forgive you for taking Antonette away from me! Oooh, pretty birdies..." Her eyes swirled as she fell over.

---

Later on, Uno was walking down the streets of Nerima, alone. Not because of a fight or anything like that, but because Ranma had wanted them to get to know the area on their own. Tre, Sette, Nove and Cinque had stayed behind, the first three to spar against each other lightly and Cinque was there because Ranma had told her to vent some frustration.

Oh well, Uno was enjoying the walk at least. The people were fairly nice, even if that one lady with the ladle seemed to be able to hit anything she wanted to. Those poor birds dropped to the ground with deadly water accuracy. Blinking as she came across a sign. "Help wanted?" She shrugged, she had nothing better to do, and she was curious as to what kind of clinic used acupuncture for treatment.

Once inside, Uno looked around, it was quaint, homey, and not too bad of a place to be, if one needed to relax before getting treated. Her eyes widened as she felt a hand on her shoulder. Looking at it, they widened further as they saw it was nothing but bones, spinning around she turned to face...

A man in a black martial arts Gi, glasses on his face and short brown hair smiling at her while holding a skeleton. "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you with Betty here." He apologized to her. "So, what can I do for you?"

"I saw the sign outside and was idly wondering why you needed help." Uno said as the man chuckled softly.

"Ah. I just need someone for a bit, help out clean up, answer phones and organize patients files." He smiled at her.

"Oh," Uno smiled softly at him in return, "easy enough, mr..."

"Tofu. Dr. Onu Tofu."

She blinked, that was a weird name, then again, she was named after number one, so, it wasn't that unusual. "Well, like I was saying, this is easy enough, since I can perfectly hack into any computer system in the world with no one knowing that I was there to begin with, so filing and organizing files would be easy for me."

"Hack any system?" Tofu blinked as she nodded. "Prove it."

She shrugged, a small blue screen appearing in front of her, as did a blue keyboard as she started typing several things down. "Here, see for yourself. This is a live feed of the security system of a place called the "White House"."

Tofu blinked as she turned the blue screen to him, his eyes widened as he heard audio from the screen.

_"Mr. President."_

_"Yes?"_

_"We have confirmation on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq."_

_"Excellent, begin the war immediately."_

_"Yes, sir!"_

The screen turned off as Uno smiled pleasantly at him.

"You're hired. When do you want to start?"

(---)

A couple of hours later at the Tendo Dojo, an event of major importance was taking place.

"Here you go, Cinque." Kasumi smiled as she handed the incredibly short one-eyed girl the large teddy bear. "I couldn't fix the face completely, but Ranma did say that you might like it like this." The foot had stitches over it, keeping it sealed up, the face had some new cloth that was a lighter shade of fur than the rest of the bear. There was a black eyepatch sewn into the bear's head over the damaged eye.

Cinque's good eye sparkled as she hugged the bear tightly to her body and dragged it over to the sitting area, sitting down by the couch as she held it. It was kind of funny to Kasumi, to see such a small, young-looking girl hugging a bear that was almost twice her size happily.

"Hey, dad..." Sette spoke up as she entered the room, dressed in jeans and a red tie-dye t-shirt with a red and silver bandanna in her hands as she looked at Ranma, who was sitting on the couch next to Cinque.

"Yeah?" Ranma looked over his shoulder to look at her as she smiled nervously. "What's up, Sette?"

"Going to go run around town, that fine?"

Ranma shrugged as she put her bandanna on. "Yeah, that's fine, just don't get lost."

"If I get lost... Flare my power, you'll come find me?"

Ranma nodded as he looked her over. "You know, your outfit is missing something..." He muttered and pulled out a pair of yellow-tinted glasses and tossed them to her. "Here."

Sette blinked and put the glasses on. For some odd reason, she had the urge to find some flowers and hold up her fingers in a 'V' shape.

Deed blinked as she came down the stairs, dressed in shorts and a tank top as her hair was damp. "Where's Sette going?"

"Just for a walk." Ranma shrugged. He wasn't too worried about her, she could take care of herself. He blinked as the door to the back yard opened up and a girl with brown hair stepped into the room, glaring at Cinque. "How the heck did she find out that we were here?"

"You!" The girl pointed at Cinque. "Give me back Antonette!"

Cinque stood up, a blade appearing in her hand as she stood protectively in front of her bear. "Go back to whatever sugar dump you crawled out of."

The girl twitched before smirking at her. "You! I challenge you to Anything Goes Martial Arts Figureskating next week!" She pointed at Cinque. "I win and Antonette is mine!"

"Uh, Azusa..."

"What?" She whirled on Ranma, who was shaking his head.

"Don't you and Mikado have nothing but matches all of this week?"

She blinked a few times before snapping her fingers. "Oh yeah! Okay, fine! In three weeks then! See you at Kolkhoz High then!" She disappeared before anyone could say anything.

Or at least, she thought so, the instant she turned around a blade sunk into the ground under her, exploding and sending her flying into the air through the roof.

Ranma sweat-dropped as Cinque looked on innocently. "What?"

"You're going to need a partner who knows how to skate, Cinque... Get practicing with Nove."

(---)

Blinking as there was an explosion back at the house, Sette was tempted to head back, but figured that if there was a real problem that she wouldn't be too needed. Cinque, Nove and Tre were better at combat than she was anyway, and Ranma had been telling her that she could find her own way in life, she didn't need to be a pure fighter anymore. While being a fighter was important for the loops, most people who were looping weren't pure fighters anymore. Heck, Ranma himself had said that he was as much a scientist as he was a fighter these days.

Ignoring those thoughts, the tall pink-haired girl shrugged and just walked around, drinking in the sights around her. This place wasn't as technologically advanced as Mid-Childa had been, but at least it wasn't completely stone-age. Although, she had to admit, the yellow tinge that she saw the world was rather neat, thanks to the sunglasses she was wearing.

She blinked and spun around as she heard a thump and then an engine rev up as a motorcycle drove up to her. "Otto?" She blinked a few times, looking at the boyish girl, dressed in jeans, a black shirt, a sleeveless blue jean vest, ankle-boots on her feet and black glasses on her face.

"Hey." She smiled at her sister. "Isn't this bike great? Dad got it for me." It looked like a rather fancy motorcycle, allowing Otto to lean back, since the handlebars were rather long. "I think he called it a Harley."

"You call him dad, too?" Sette smiled as Otto nodded. "Sweet. By the way, I think you hit something."

Otto blinked, she hadn't noticed anything as she tried to show Sette her new wheels. "Really?"

"Yeah."

"Odd... Wanna get on and ride?" Otto smiled as Sette did just that, slipped behind her and hugged the smaller brown-haired girl from behind as Otto revved the engines and gunned it down the street.

(---)

Tatewaki Kuno was having what he would like to think of as a good day. His Fierce Tigress, Akane Tendo, again showed him how much she loved him. Oh sure, it hurt a little bit, but he knew that she didn't want to reveal her affections in public. Why, as soon as he could get her alone, he was certain that his persistence and love would shine through.

Thoughts on his Fierce Tigress fled his mind as he rounded a corner and saw her, a beauty of all beauties. Tall, buxom, long pink hair, a red t-shirt that screamed free spirit, jeans that hugged her legs and showed off the curves of her lower body and a bandanna that didn't detract from the way she looked, especially those pretty pink eyes as he got closer. "Ah! The pink-haired Goddess who rivals, nay, surpasses the Goddess Athena in beauty. Come to me, my Goddess! I wish to date thee!" He yelled and ran at her, only to be hit from behind by something loud and annoying, sending him flying. "Aiiiiieee! The love of the Heavens is one fraught with pain!" He called out as he disappeared into the air.

(---)

Pushing her long hair over her shoulders, Sein stretched and smiled softly. "Hey, Deed, this place is pretty neat, isn't it?" At least she thought so. No mages with ungodly amounts of power flying around, no military assholes ordering her and the others around, and best of all, in Sein's opinion, no one had any real expectations of what they were to do.

"Yeah..." The brown haired girl smiled softly and looked up, blinking. "I thought people around here couldn't fly."

Sein scratched her head and looked up. "Huh, weird, people can fly if they scream something about heaven and pain?" She honestly had thought that people in this world couldn't fly under their own power.

The two shrugged off the slightly odd sight, they had seen weirder from being on Mid-Childa after all, and continued on, wondering what to do when Sein blinked slightly. "Hey, Deed, do you hear that?"

"The sound of flesh getting whipped and girls crying out in pain or pleasure?" Deed asked rhetorically as she and Sein moved closer to the sound. Motioning to Sein, the blue-green haired girl grabbed her sister and the two phased through the wall partly, just enough to lean through and look to see what was going on.

They blinked as they saw a dark-haired girl in a leotard holding a whip-like object in her hand, laughing hysterically as she used her weapon, snapping it around the limbs of one of the three girls in different colored leotards on the ground and throwing them into the walls, each other, the garbage or the ground. "Now maybe you can respect the Black Rose a bit more." She sniffed, turned and leapt away, laughing the whole time. "OHohohohohohohohoho!"

Deed didn't know why, but she found that laugh rather... Interesting. "I think we should check on those three, huh?"

Sein shrugged and phased through the wall completely, pulling Deed with her. The two helped the injured girls up and asked them what had happened.

"She's Kodachi Kuno, the Black Rose! She's the captain of the St. Herberke Rhythmic Gymnastics club. We have a match with her later this week!" One of the girls cried out pathetically,

Sein blinked in confusion and scratched her head. "So you jump her and tried to beat her up and she defended herself and beat you up when you had her outnumbered three to one?"

"Yes, but..."

"And then you three tried your hardest to beat her, but she proved to be too much for your feeble attempts and now you're injured and looking pathetic and going to try to say that you either had to or that she attacked you first, right?" Deed spoke up, snorting as she stood up. "Come on, Sein. I can't believe that I felt sorry for these three."

"Good point."

"Wait..." The girls groaned as Deed and Sein left them. "You're supposed to listen to our story!" They cried as one.

(---)

Hours later, Sein and Deed found themselves relaxing in the living room of the Tendo home as a knock on the door was heard. The two looked at each other and shrugged as they saw Tre, dressed in a robe that barely covered her chest or hips, her hair mussed up and a satisfied smirk on her face, walk to the door and open it.

Sein shrugged, what Tre was doing wandering around after having sex was her own business. Besides, she rather liked how relaxed and happy Tre seemed to be lately, especially when she wandered around in that bathrobe of hers.

"Oh yes, come on in." She heard Tre and idly looked back to see who was coming in. Her eyes widened as she saw the three beaten up and bruised girls.

"Hey, Deed! It's the wimps!" Sein grinned and pointed at them as her sister turned to look.

"We're not wimps!" The girls yelled as one. "She was just really good!" They sniffled softly. "And you could have at least helped us here!" The girl with short brown hair said softly.

"I told you that we should have left that guy with the bandanna." The girl with wavy black hair glared at her teammate.

"Hey, he offered to help get us here." The first girl whimpered. "How was I supposed to know that he couldn't find his way out of the alleyway without getting lost?"

Behind them, Tre stretched, causing her robe to shift and move up, flashing her panties to anyone who was looking, before she left the room and went upstairs. Moving down the hallway, she knocked on a door with a duck sign titled "Akane" on it.

"Come in." She heard Akane's voice as she opened the door and stepped in. On the bed, Akane was resting on her back as she read a book. Akane was dressed in a t-shirt and shorts as she looked away from her book. "Oh, you..." Akane sighed and sat up. She didn't like the woman in front of her. Tre was taller, bustier, curvier and was dammed fast and strong, Akane had seen that during the sparring matches she had with Sette, Nove, Wendi, Cinque and Ranma. Most of that was just the girls trying to either tag Ranma or refine their own abilities. Plus the fact was that Tre seemed at least as good as Akane was in pure skill.

Tre rolled her eyes, she really didn't like this girl. She wasn't too bad most of the time, but then there were times that her temper or jealousy flared up and it just annoyed her. "There's three girls here to see you downstairs."

Akane could only blink.

(---)

Two minutes later in the dojo Akane, Sein, Deed and Tre sat around listening to the girls' story. Tre actually found herself agreeing with Sein and Deed, these girls were incredibly pathetic, they had the element of surprise, superior numbers and, presumably, skill and ability. After all, what kind of idiot would try to take on superior opponents without having a strategy in mind?

Something in the back of her mind was telling her that she might be in that class of people if Ranma hadn't taken Jail Scagiletti's place. _Whoever that guy was._ She thought to herself.

Tre wasn't to blame for not knowing who Jail Scagiletti was, since Ranma had taken over his place in the loop that one time he was the only "Doctor" that she had ever known, literally, and she had never looped before that point, she really had no idea who Jail Scagiletti was.

Though Ranma had mentioned that if they ever woke up in future loops that they would know who Jail Scagiletti was and the differences between the two of them.

"So, please, Akane! You have to help us! The honor of Furinkan High depends on you! You're the only female martial artist that we could turn to!" The leader of the three, practically begged Akane, tears falling down her face softly as she tried to move the heart strings of the youngest Tendo.

"Don't worry." Akane grinned at them and thumped her chest dramatically. "I'll definately win the match for Furinkan!" Seeing them thank her tearfully, she couldn't help but feel a surging swell of pride. She was certain she'd be able to win this. Just a bit of practice and she'd be able to do anything!

The three smiled as Tre led them out of the dojo.

"Do you know how to use these?" Sein asked as she lifted the ribbon and moved it around. "The girl that beat them up was using this to throw around trashcans and those girls."

"Besides, Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics?" Deed asked blinking as she picked up a large hoop and tossed it up and down. "How does that work? Just using blunt and soft objects to hit your opponent?"

Akane nodded as she picked up the clubs, one in each hand. "Yeah."

Sein blinked as she saw Akane in a leotard. "How'd you do that so fast?"

Akane shrugged as she lightly waved the clubs around. "Anything Goes clothing speed change." Seeing the blank looks, she shrugged. "What? It's a real technique. Mostly useless in a fight, but it's useful when your clothes get wrecked somehow."

Sein and Deed sweat-dropped as they watched Akane through the clubs up into the air, before they landed a few feet away from her. "Is that supposed to happen?" Sein asked, curiously, blinking as Akane growled and grabbed a ribbon and started to twirl it, before it somehow got tangled around her ankle, causing her to trip and fall down, twisting so that she landed on her back, but it caused her to get completely wrapped up in the ribbon.

Deed sweat-dropped more. "Um, I hate to say this, but you aren't exactly coordinated, are you?"

"Shut up!" Akane growled as she tried to squirm out of the ribbon. "I'll get this!"

"Especially if you have help." A male voice spoke up from the Dojo door, causing the three to blink and look at the door. Ryoga was leaning on the door frame, smirking softly. "I heard about the attack from the girls, and I don't think that it's right that they would get beat up so mercilessly. Plus, I can train you in Rhythmic Gymnastics."

Sein shrugged, she found this boring and left the room.

Deed, on the other hand, took a step forward. "Can you teach me too?" Seeing both Ryoga and Akane look at her weirdly, she blushed softly. "I... I want to learn some other weapons, if that's okay?"

Ryoga shrugged at her. "Sure. Besides, Akane could use a sparring partner that's learning with her."

Akane nodded and smiled. Deed was one of the few of the new girls that was living at her home that she didn't mind. She was nice, fairly quiet, compared to Nove and Wendi at least, and she wasn't insanely better than Akane was in martial arts unlike most of her sisters.

Deed smiled, this could be fun.

Hours later...

Deed wiped some sweat off of her forehead, she had avoided the worst of the accidents that had happened during the training.

Akane, on the other hand, was on the ground, struggling to untie herself from both the hoop, which she had tried jumping through, and the ribbon that she had been using. "Grr... I'll get this!" She couldn't believe that Deed hadn't gotten wrapped up like she had.

"You're doing better, honestly." Ryoga tried to smile reassuringly, it was hard. He had never seen someone so clumsy claim to be a martial artist before. Then again, she wasn't too bad, she just lacked a serious trainer or sparring partner.

"Dinner!" Kasumi was heard yelling from the kitchen.

Deed stretched and grimaced at the smell coming from her. "I'll go get washed up and changed. Ask Kasumi to hold some food for me, please?" Seeing them nod, she disappeared into the house.

"Do you mind if I eat too?" Ryoga asked, rubbing the back of his head as Akane smiled at him.

"Sure." She said as she kicked the last of the equipment away from her. "Follow me."

Smiling, Ryoga did just that, walking out the door and following the sweet girl Akane, walking by a field of flowers, a few bears in ice-capped snow fields and... _Wait, what?_ Ryoga looked around and growled loudly. "WHERE ON EARTH AM I NOW?!"

(---)

"So, those three got someone to replace them, huh?" A female dressed in a black dress huffed, before grabbing her dress and pulling it up and throwing it off of her, revealing that she was wearing a black leotard underneath with a giant mallet strapped to her back. "I, Kodachi the Black Rose, will not stand for this." She jumped into the air, jumping to the roof of a two-story house and started bounding from rooftop to rooftop effortlessly.

Landing in the back yard of the Tendo yard, Kodachi blinked, the house was rather big, it looked like the house had gotten an addition to the upstairs, extra rooms added to the ends of the hallways as the house was expanded on the sides. "I must admit, this architecture is quite well done." She mused to herself quietly. The lights were mostly off, seeing as it was getting late. She shrugged to herself and jumped to the roof, quietly creeping around. She would deal with the problem now rather than letting it get out of hand.

(---)

Deed, dressed in a light brown nearly transparent nightie with nothing underneath, sighed as she flopped onto her bed, eyes closed. She just felt so relaxed after bathing and eating that she just wanted to rest and sleep. Taking a deep breath, she opened her eyes slightly, before they opened up wide at seeing that girl in the alley way hanging from her ceiling. "Uhh..."

"I must say, that you're prettier than I would have thought you would be." Kodachi said, giving Deed, who started blushing pretty hard, an appraising eye. "Although, my tastes do not run that way, I must admit that you would be a near rival for my perfect beauty." Suddenly Kodachi dropped from the ceiling and pulled out the mallet from her back, before swinging down at Deed, who rolled out of the way and grabbed one of her blade handles that was on the table next to her bed, igniting her blade and holding it in front of her defensively.

"What the heck?" Deed stared at the girl in front of her. "You compliment me and then attack me?"

Kodachi laughed softly. "Ohohohohohohoho... You think that I attack you for no reason? You were going to replace those girls that attacked me. And I, for one, believe in all fairness of the fight."

"Uh... I don't think it's fair to attack someone when they're nearly naked and trying to get some sleep." Deed sweat-dropped at her. "Look, if you wanted to attack me, couldn't you wait until morning?"

Kodachi blinked, she hadn't heard someone say that to her before. "Well, I suppose so, but it becomes such a problem when people see me do this kind of thing." She jumped forward and swung the mallet down at Deed, who tried parrying the mallet, only to grimace as she was driven back against the wall. At least her blade had destroyed the wooden mallet. "Such a dangerous weapon." Kodachi laughed at her and pulled out a ribbon from behind her. "You are a very formidable opponent, I look forward to facing you down at the match." She started laughing, before twirling her ribbon around in front of her, many, many black rose petals flying out of nowhere before she bounded out of the open window next to Deed, who was coughing slightly.

Deed looked at her room and pouted, not only did the rose petals make a mess of her room, but her bed was broke now. "...Maybe Otto won't mind me sleeping with her tonight." She blinked as the door to her room opened and Ranma stepped in, dressed in just his black pants and nothing else.

"Deed, you okay?" He asked, looking at her and, his eyes narrowed at this, the black rose petals scattered all over the room. "Did Kodachi hurt you?" He was surprised as she dropped her blade, suddenly jumped at him and hugged him. "Hey... You okay?"

"My bed's broke, my room's a mess and that girl hit on me before trying to hurt me." She sighed. "What's wrong with her?" Ranma shrugged as he hugged her and kissed her on the forehead.

"I'm not sure. We'll get you a new bed in the morning. I'm sure that either Sein, Dieci, Sette or Otto will let you sleep in their room tonight."

Deed smiled softly at him. "Thanks." Mentally, she made a note to talk to Akane, she was going to _so_ replace the youngest Tendo in the upcoming Rhythmic Gymnastics Martial Arts match.

(---)

"No." It was a simple, flat statement. It was breakfast time, the rather large group of girls were sitting around the table, as was Genma, Soun and Ranma, but they weren't girls, so they didn't count for that.

"She attacked me, though." Deed said to Akane as the large amounts of food on the table disappeared rather quickly. Interestingly enough, it wasn't all Genma's fault. By her side, Nove was trying to tell Wendi to stop trying to feed her.

"That's why I'm going to take her on." Akane said with a determined look in her eyes. "She showed up to my house, attacked a guest after putting three of my classmates out of action?" The girl balled her hands into a fist. "I won't stand for this!

Deed frowned slightly, she really wanted to go against Kodachi too. "Fine... But I'm still training with you." Akane nodded and smiled, she didn't mind training with Deed, the girl was pretty nice about it.

Nabiki rolled her eyes at the conversation. "Really, Akane, you can have a million chances at Kodachi, she is Kuno-chan's sister after all."

"Just watch, I'm going to get good enough to beat her and avenge the honor of my school!" Akane stood up, taking a dramatic pose, the wind started to blow and water crashed against the rocks behind her.

"Dad, Uncle Saotome, stop that." Nabiki groaned as the two men chuckled sheepishly, Genma putting away the fan and Soun taking down the projector he was using to make the waves and rocks. "Besides, Akane, it's only three days away, can you get good enough in that length of time to beat her?"

Akane nodded at that. "Ryoga already taught me how to do the moves, and Deed's going to help and..." She moved from her spot, only to trip over something fall to the ground with a "splat". "Oww!" She cried out, reaching for her ankle. "What the? P-chan? What are you doing under mommy's feet?" She asked, before wincing as her ankle throbbed. "Owwies."

Ranma slipped up behind Nabiki and tapped her shoulder. "When did that happen again?"

"While you were building the extra rooms."

"Oh." He had missed Ryoga showing up at all. Something seemed off though... "Doesn't he usually show up to kill me at night?" Near him, Tre frowned as she overheard that and looked at the pig in disgust.

"You were busy and I told him to come back at a later time." Seeing Ranma look, she smirked at him. "I just told him that it wouldn't be honorable to attack someone who would be tired and he left quietly."

"Just like that?" Ranma sweat-dropped as he watched Akane try to get up, but fail and fall down, clutching her ankle. "...History always repeats itself..."

"If you aren't careful about it." Nabiki nodded sagely.

A few minutes later, Akane was sitting on her bed, grimacing as Kasumi wrapped up her ankle. "I'll be fine." She reassured Kasumi and tried to stand up, only to fall flat on her face. "Oww..." She grimaced and reached for her ankle.

"You need to be careful, Akane. It's a light sprain but..." Kasumi trailed off, shaking her head.

"Dammit!" Akane cursed and punched her bed. "So, it might be healed by then, it might not be healed in time for the match?" She cursed and sat back. "So, what? There's three days, and it's not like..."

Deed cleared her throat, getting Akane's attention. "I can cover for you." She offered, blinking as Akane frowned.

"You don't go to our school, don't you think that they wouldn't like it?" Hearing that, the brown-haired cyborg shrugged, it didn't matter to her, she wanted to take on Kodachi again. Akane sighed and grimaced, she couldn't believe she was asking this, but at least Deed was easy enough to get along with. "Then, please, give her hell."

Deed grinned, she could do that.

Meanwhile in another room, Ranma had Deed's blade hilts taken apart as he cleaned and adjusted them, blinking as Nabiki cleared her throat and glared at him. "I did something wrong, and you aren't going to tell me because you're pissed, right?" He asked, turning back to the blades and working on them.

"Close, Saotome. Very close. But I'm more pissed at why you didn't offer to heal Akane's ankle." She asked, her arms crossed.

"Why didn't you?" He shot back at her.

"I was going to, but I wanted to know why you didn't."

Ranma sighed and put down the blade hilts, before turning to Nabiki. "How many times have we done this?" When Nabiki blinked, he shook his head. "The whole "meet Kodachi, fight Kodachi, deal with this match". How many times?"

"A lot."

"I've done it, Akane's done it, hell, I think you did it once."

Nabiki grimaced, she hated that loop where she had been the youngest and Akane had taken her place, that had sucked horribly. "Okay, point, so, you just want to see something different this once?" Seeing him nod and go back to working on the hilts, she frowned. "I'm calling bullshit, Saotome. Even so, you would have at least offered to fix her ankle for her, even if you had to make her swear on her honor that she wouldn't participate in the match." Seeing him stiffen, even if slightly, was gratifying enough. "So, spill, what's the deal?"

"...Remember a long time ago?"

"Too vague." Nabiki rolled her eyes. "Be more specific."

"Remember what Akane did to Yggdrasil?" Ranma asked, getting Nabiki to stop, her eyes widening and her face paling as the memory of WHAT Ranma had put the both of them through in retaliation for having caused the emergence of the Fith Generation Loops. "I found out, much later, that she set back Skuld's work by at least a few hundred... Thousand... Loops." He growled the last part out, taking deep breaths to try and keep his cool. "Skuld told me... She told me that it would only take, maybe another thousand loops, at most, to finally get the loops to end... They were stabalizing, Nabiki! We hadn't been in a fused or crossed loop in so long that I was starting to enjoy everything again." By this point, Nabiki could clearly hear the sound of Ranma's knuckle poping as he clenched his fist in pure frustration.

"I... Akane smashed it... And fucked everything up." Nabiki blinked in stunned stupidity. "...Sorry." She knew exactly how pissed Ranma was, he was so much older than most of the other loopers that he was tired of doing the loops. He may not have looked it, but he really was a tired old man, and there were times that it really showed.

Plus the fact that they had used HIS backdoor access to Yggdrasil, a gift from both Urd and Skuld had only added insult to injury.

"Yeah. This is actually the most fun I've had in a long time, so, I'm not going to let anything ruin it for me." Ranma muttered and went back to working on Deed's blade hilts.

Nabiki was silent as she thought about that. "It's a weak excuse, Saotome. I've done worse to you, others have done worse to you, so, why do that to her?"

Ranma shrugged as he finished putting the blade hilt back together. "Maybe it is. But, honestly, Nabiki, we've both seen this scenario a lot of times, let someone else try for once." He smirked and turned around as he put the last pieces into place. "Who knows? Maybe something interesting will happen for once?"

Nabiki grumbled, sighing as she conceded that point. "Okay, fine, so, what are you doing?"

Ranma shrugged. "Kodachi's going to cheat, we both know that. I'm just tuning up Deed's blades so they won't kill Kodachi by accident." He grinned as he thought about the... modifications that they had. "I think Deed will like what I did."

"So, what about Nove and Cinque?" Nabiki asked, smirking as Ranma sighed.

"They're not bad at ice-skating, but I can't give them my full attention just yet." Ranma smirked and laughed softly. "Oh well, when this is over, they'll have more fun."

"I bet." Nabiki muttered.

---

Deed slumped to her knees, panting hard as her long brown hair pooled around her head. "That... Not fun..." She groaned as the ribbon in her hand slipped from her numb fingers as she tried to catch her breath.

"Get up. Your muscles will cramp otherwise." She heard Ranma speak as he helped her to her feet. "Walk it off, you're doing pretty good."

Deed nodded, not having the energy to really say anything against that, since she was too tired at that moment.

Ranma shook his head and smiled as Deed hobbled around the dojo. By his estimation, they had been working out, well, Deed had been working out, for about six hours straight, mostly dodging and trying to avoid some of the things that he recalled Kodachi having. "Deed, when you've cooled down, take a bath, okay? We'll continue in the morning."

Seeing her stumble out of the dojo, Ranma shook his head and walked over to a corner in the room and sat down in front of a small pile of disassembled parts before picking them up and pulling out a screwdriver to work on it.

Idly, he wondered just how much Deed would enjoy the final product.

---

Nove stumbled into the dojo, slightly tired, but she wanted to get warmed up before Cinque came down and wanted to learn how to skate better. She honestly wanted to know what was going through her midget of an older sister's head right now. And considering that Cinque was the only one of her sisters shorter than Nove, it actually meant something for her to call her sister a midget. Or it didn't, she just liked to tease her older sister. "Ah..." She blinked as she saw Ranma in the dojo, flipping Deed's laser blade hilts in the air up and catching them as they came down. "What are you doing here?"

Ranma shrugged at the short redhead. "Eh, was training Deed most of last night, after everyone went to bed, then I sent her to take a bath while I finished modifying her weapons."

Nove blinked a few times, before frowning softly. "Um, forgive me for being wrong, but wouldn't that mean she would have a chance to drown in the bathtub, if she was incredibly tired?" She blinked as Ranma chuckled, walked up to her and smiled. "What?"

"You're a good sister, Nove. But Deed won't drown." He had made sure of that. Seeing her blink in confusion, Ranma shook his head. "Don't worry about it, you'll get wrinkles on your face too quickly." He chuckled and ruffled her hair.

Nove blushed and turned away. "Ah, that's not..." She cleared her throat. "So, up for some sparring?"

Ranma grinned and slipped into a casual stance as he clipped both of Deed's blade hilts to his pants. "Sure."

If anyone was looking at the two as they squared off, they would be disturbed by the nearly identical grins both Nove and Ranma had at that moment.

---

Otto blinked as she woke up and saw Deed sleeping on her bed. "Deed?"

"Tired... No wanna dodge... Ack!" Her twin mumbled in her sleep, getting the flat-chested, boyish girl to sweat-drop, wondering just what kind of training Ranma had put her sister through to get that reaction.

Still, Otto shrugged, got out of bed, careful to not bother her twin and slipped out to bathe and wake up in the morning. As she walked down the hallway, she was joined by Dieci, Sein and Uno. "Morning." The three nodded back at her. When they got into the bathroom, they saw Nabiki and Akane soaking in the giant furo with Wendi and Sette.

Sette looked up and waved at them. "Water's fine."

As she washed down, Uno looked at Sette in confusion. "Just where is grouchy?" She asked, getting a laugh from Sein, Wendi and Dieci. Granted Tre wasn't grouchy very much these days, but she could be. Hell, even Nove managed to crack a smile more often than Tre, and that was saying something, considering how angry the two seemed to be all the time.

"Tre left just before you got here." Sette smiled at them. "She said something about finding dad for some fun if he wasn't busy." Behind her, Akane sputtered and twitched, why the hell was the tall pink-haired girl saying something like that so dammed early in the morning?

---

Tre blinked as she put her hand on the door to the dojo, before blinking as she heard the sound of flesh meeting flesh. Frowning slightly, she opened the door and blinked as she saw Nove in mid-air, twitching as she was pummeled from various points before taking a shot to the chin that sent her tumbling head over end down to the floor, crashing onto her side and rolling with the blow and ending up kneeling, one hand on the floor and holding her hand up to her face, grinning, even as she was bruised, bleeding and dirty from the blows.

Landing on the floor, Ranma smirked at her, taking a stance as he chuckled. "Not bad, Nove, you almost avoided that attack."

Wiping some blood off of her face, Nove grinned savagely and rushed forward, cocking her fist back as she tried to get to Ranma before he could do anything to stop her.

She found herself thrown across the room as Ranma grabbed her arm, flipped her upside down, before kicking her in the side and sending her crashing into the wall on the other side of the room. "Oww..." Nove groaned and slumped, not getting back up. "That hurt." Nove groaned.

Ranma chuckled and grabbed Tre's hand as she tried to punch him and flipped her over his shoulder onto her back, driving the air out of her. "Drat." She smirked up at him.

"What was that?" Ranma asked, chuckling at the purple-haired cyborg.

"Was just seeing if I could avenge my loss from yesterday." Tre smirked up at him, chuckling and wincing. "Guess not."

Ranma chuckled and shook his head. "Nope." He let go of her and walked over to Nove and helped her to her feet. "You okay, Nove?"

"Urgh... Just get me some food." The short redhead muttered as Ranma let go of her. She stumbled and nearly fell down, but Ranma grabbed her to stop her from falling. "Sorry."

"It's okay. I guess I got a little out of hand there." Ranma picked her up, carrying her out of the dojo.

Nove grimaced but didn't complain as he took her to the living room, sat her down on the couch before putting his hands over her body, a soft white glow coming from his hands and easing the pain her body had been feeling a moment ago. "What?"

"Healing magic." Ranma chuckled at her.

"Why didn't you heal Akane then?" Nove wondered, wondering what made her special enough to get healed like this.

"I have my reasons." Ranma chuckled and stopped healing her. "You're good to go, anyway..."

"Hmm?" Nove blinked as Ranma pulled a bucket of water out of somewhere and chuckled.

"I gotta wake Deed up. She needs to keep her strength up and eat something."

The short redhead didn't know what to think as Ranma left the room, but didn't think much on it. She blinked as Tre came into the room and sat down in another chair and leaned back. "Um, Tre..."

"Yeah?" She blinked as Nove looked at her, her face flushed slightly. "What?" She frowned at the short redhead. "Don't tell me that you're getting attracted to me."

"What? No! But your robe is rather short around the legs and open in the top."

Tre smirked and shrugged, causing her breasts to shift under her robe. "It lets people look at my breasts, ass and legs if I want to." She crossed her legs, showing off a hint of her panties underneath, causing Nove to growl, get up and quickly leave the room. "Ahh... Alone time now." Tre chuckled and leaned back against the chair, enjoying the time alone.

---

Deed snuggled against the soft, comfy bed. She was just too tired, not enough sleep, too...

She was rudely awakened as a splash of ice-cold water hit her, forcing her to sit up with a gasp, her eyes wide. "Gah!" She panted, looking around with wide eyes.

Ranma chuckled softly as he lowered the bucket. "Sorry, Deed, but you need to get up and get something to eat." He ignored the way she twitched and glared at him. "Also, you might want to get dressed."

"Fine, fine." She grumbled as she got out of bed, wincing slightly. She felt so stiff and sore right now.

Ranma shook his head. "Just get down to get some breakfast, okay? You need to eat something to get your strength back." He said gently and patted her on the back softly.

"Did you have to soak me?" Deed asked, nearly whining as Ranma chuckled at her.

"I tried to wake you up for over ten minutes now." Ranma shook his head and left the room.

Deed sputtered, twitched and grumbled. Couldn't he have at least not soaked the bed? It would take hours, if not days, for it to dry out completely. Sighing, she stripped out of her wet clothes and got dressed. At least she had taken a bath before going to bed.

---

Later at the table, Sein grinned as she saw Deed eating a lot more than she normally did. "Wow, worked a little too hard last night?" She chuckled as Deed gave her a bit of a dirty look. "What? You did, otherwise you wouldn't be eating so much right now."

"Six hours, okay? We worked out for six hours." Deed grumbled and looked at Ranma. "So, what are we going to do today?"

He smirked at her. "You'll see when we get there." He chuckled at the groan of dismay she was giving him. Oh, how much fun it was going to be.

Deed didn't know why, but she felt like someone just walked over her grave. Or maybe that was Wendi's foot rubbing across her feet as the redhead tried to rub Nove's feet, she wasn't sure.

Ranma blinked as he saw Uno excuse herself from the table. "Busy?"

"I've got a job." She smiled at him, causing everyone to blink at her. "There's a clinic nearby, a Dr. Tofu's clinic, he hired me for some work there."

Ranma laughed as she left. "Ha! Now that's irony." Of everyone at the table, only Nabiki got the joke and chuckled quietly. "Alright, Deed, meet me in the dojo when you're done eating, I need to show you something."

Deed sighed and went back to eating. She really didn't want to deal with this without a full stomach.

"Which training method did he use?" Nabiki asked as she took a drink of water. Nearly nothing would surprise her.

"He kept yelling to dodge." Deed said, blinking as Nabiki spit out her water. "Is that bad?"

"No, it's generally just humiliating, annoying and dammed effective." Nabiki coughed a few times. "Ask Keiichi, Naruto or Ichigo if you ever meet them."

Deed nodded, wondering just what crazy things Nabiki and Ranma had seen in the loops.

---

Hours later, Sein walked into the dojo, wondering how Deed's training was going. She had seen Ranma leave an hour ago, saying that he was going to check up on something and had left Deed training alone. Sein's blue-green eyes blinked in confusion as she looked at her sister. "Uh... Are you into bondage, Deed?"

On the floor, wrapped up in several ribbons that somehow managed to tie themselves around her breasts, spread her legs slightly, gag her and tie her arms up behind her, was Deed and she was glaring at her older sister, who chuckled, walked over to her, grabbed her shoulder and phased her out of the ribbons. "How did that happen?"

Deed whimpered and shook her head. "Been like that for an hour! Do you know how BORING it is when you can't do anything?" Sein took a step back, grinned softly and raised her hands up in a defensive gesture.

"Hey, come on... I was just curious."

Deed grumbled and shook her head, sighing. "Sorry, Sein, just a little cramped and no one came to help me out for an hour. I'm not using more than one ribbon ever again." The long-brown haired cyborg sighed and looked at the mess. "Much less four at once. Dad's going to be upset too."

Sein shrugged and scratched her head. "Eh, at least you didn't try that at the match, huh?" Suddenly Deed started laughing as she nodded, that would be rather humorous.

---

Two Days Later...

It was the night of the match, Akane looked around as people started to come to the St. Herberke school gym, which looked closer to a dome than a gym, and pile in. "Where is Deed?" She asked, wincing as her ankle still gave her problems when she tried walking on it.

"Otto was bringing her." Sein said, before smirking as the sound of a rumbling engine was heard. "Ah, there they are." The two looked on as Otto, dressed in her black jeans and leather vest, dark sunglasses on her face as she drove her motorcycle to the gym, Deed was riding on the bike, sitting behind Otto while dressed in purple pants and shirt while holding a duffel bag.

"Thanks, Otto." Deed smiled as her twin stopped the bike and let her get off. "See you inside." Otto nodded at her as Deed waved to Sein and Akane, walking to the both of them.

"Oh wow! Look how handsome he is!" A nameless girl said loudly while pointing to Otto, who blinked behind her glasses and blushed hard as more girls were whispering, giggling and pointing at her.

"Uh... Uh..."

"Oh wow, handsome and cute!" A very pretty girl smiled as she stepped closer to Otto. "So, what are you doing later?"

"Watching my sister take on Kodachi Kuno." Otto said, her voice breaking as she tried to keep her cool, it got harder as girls started crowding her and asking for her sister's name so they knew who she was cheering for. "Uh, her name's Deed, you'll see her when the match starts." She gulped as someone boldly slipped their hand on her lower back, she was thankful she didn't get off the bike or someone would have been squeezing her butt. "Um, excuse me!" She roared the engine and the girls backed away as she peeled out of there to find a parking spot.

"Awww! He was so cute too!" The girl that had tried to feel Otto up pouted as the biker had left.

---

Nabiki sighed as she sat in the stands, looking around as people started piling in the stands, some on the upper levels, most, like her, were sitting on the lower levels to get a better look at the ring where the match would take place. It was closer to a Professional Wrestling ring in terms of size and design, but she knew it wasn't just for show. She smirked softly as she saw Ranma, Uno and Tre sit down just in front of her. "Hey, you three. Not being Deed's spotter?" She asked, curious and blinking as Akane sat down next to her. "Okay, so, who..."

"Nove is." Otto said as she and Sette sat down in the same row as Nabiki and Akane, just down a bit from them. The small group was sitting right next to the ring floor to get a better look, not that any of them needed to sit so close, but it would be easier for them to cheer Deed on from there. Dieci sat next to Nabiki, right next to the steps that made up the isle, Cinque, being the shortest, was sitting right in front of her.

Uno blinked a few times. "Where's Sein and Wendi?"

**"Welcome to the Rhythmic Gymnastics Martial Arts Match and... ACK!"** People blinked and started muttering as there were sounds heard over the loud speaker.

**"Sorry about that!"** A new voice was heard. **"My name's Sein and myself and Wendi are taking over for the announcers for the rest of the match!"**

In the ring, a girl with a short black ponytail, dressed in a white dress shirt and black dress pants was announcing the contestants. "For St. Herberke, the Champion, Kodachi Kuno!" She yelled, gesturing towards the girl in a black leotard, her hair done up in a long black ponytail. "And in this corner..." She trailed off, blinking as she saw Deed, dressed in a leotard as she held a ribbon in her hand. "Um... Who?"

"Deed." When the ring referee asked for a last name, the brown-haired cyborg sweated slightly, before she blurted out the first name that came to mind. "Saotome!"

In the stands Nabiki started laughing as Ranma twitched slightly, next to Ranma, Uno looked on amusedly as people looked on in slight confusion.

Otto scratched her head before smiling at that. "So, I'm Saotome too then?" Nabiki, hearing that, nearly fell over laughing, and only stopped when Ranma turned to give her a flat look.

"Can I be Sette Saotome, dad?"

Ranma sighed and chuckled ruefully. "Sure." He really didn't have any real objection to it, though it did feel weird to have anyone call him dad, or even take his last name, other than as a joke.

Sitting on the lowest level, Takewaki Kuno nodded as he looked at the opponent of his sister. She was a pretty girl, but nothing compared to his fierce tigress or the pink haired Athena. "Ah, if not for them, that lovely lady would be almost worthy of my affections." Kuno said softly, smiling as she rested his Bokken on his shoulder. If only he had found his Athena's name.

"Representing Furinkan High! Deed Saotome! The rules are simple!" The referee yelled at the crowds. "No time limits, no bare-handed blows! If either contestant is knocked down or falls out of the ring, they will lose."

"Ohohohohohohoho!" Kodachi laughed as she held a length of rope in one hand and two clubs in the other hand. "Shall we begin?"

"Gladly." Deed smirked and lashed her ribbon out at Kodachi, who batted it away with her rope, then wrapped up the end of the ribbon with her clubs as she spun around, swinging the rope at Deed, who spun to avoid the blow. Her eyes widened as Kodachi jumped into the air, laughing the whole while and wrapping it around her ankles.

**"Oh no!"** Wendi stood up, yelling into the microphone. **"It seems as if Kodachi has wrapped up Deed by her ankles and is about to trip her up, if that happens..."**

**"Immediate forfeit!"** Sein finished for the redhead next to her. **"Oh, look at that, Champion Kodachi uses her rope to try and sweep Deed off her feet, it's almost like it's a club or rod."**

Deed winced as she felt the blow to her ankles but she rolled with the blow, put her hand on the mat and used it to flip away from Kodachi. "Ball!" She called out as Kodachi called for a hoop. Catching the large ball that Nove threw to her, Deed re-directed it straight at Kodachi while kicking her feet loose. Sure, she could fly, but that wouldn't be as much fun. Plus it would be a hassle to explain why she could fly in the first place.

"Hoop." Kodachi called out, using her rope to snag the inside of the ring, spun it around a few times, before spinning her body to add momentum and launching the hoop at the ball that was thrown at her, cutting it clean through.

"What the heck?!" Deed's eyes widened as she bent backwards to avoid the hoop, only for her eyes to widen as it cut clean through one of the corner posts.

"Hey!" Nove yelled at the referee. "Isn't that illegal?!"

"It's not a bare-handed blow." The referee shrugged as Kodachi grabbed a ribbon that her second tossed to her, before lashing out, the end wrapping around the hoop and pulling it back.

Deed grimaced and jumped to the side as the hoop was pulled back, tearing up the mat a bit in the process.

"Ohohohohohoho! You are good." Kodachi smirked as she snapped her ribbon, letting the hoop fly back at Deed, who had grabbed the two halves of the ball in the ring and used them to knock the hoop harmlessly, well, as harmlessly as a razor-sharp hoop was, out of the ring and onto the floor.

"Why the heck are you cheating anyway?" Deed asked as she grabbed her ribbon.

"Cheating?" Kodachi put her hand up to her mouth and laughed, most people shuddered as it got louder. Deed didn't even flinch. "My dear girl, the true essense of Martial Arts Rythmic Gymnastics is to control an endless array of tools, watch!" Kodachi jumped into the air, snapped her ribbon out and wrapped it around the nearest object, which happened to be a steel chair, before she pulled back and swung it at Deed, who had snapped her ribbon out, similar to Kodachi and wrapped it around the referee bell and swinging it at the chair, both colliding and knocking each other out of the ring with a loud crash.

**"Incredible! I didn't even know that the ribbons were that sturdy."** Sein yelled excitedly and jumped back with Wendi as Deed wrapped the ribbon around the announcer table. **"Woah! Never thought I'd ever see a table go flying like that before! What's this? Champion Kodachi is countering with... Some idiot in a kendo outfit and wielding a bokken."** Sein blinked as someone whispered in her ear. **"Oh! That's Kodachi's older brother, ladies and gentlemen!"**

Wendi looked at the judges next to her. "Is the use of a brother legal?"

"LEGAL!" They yelled as one and raised white flags.

Kuno saw the table flying at him, before he thrusted his wooden sword out, smashing the table, and Deed's ribbon, to pieces.

"Deed!" Nove yelled as she tossed two small objects at the brown-haired girl, who caught them, one in each hand.

Kuno, meanwhile, crashed into the isle in the bleachers and shook his head. "That... Did not hurt." He muttered as he rubbed his head and stood up. His eyes widened as he caught a glimpse of pink. "My pink haired Athena! I wish to date with thee!" He rushed forward, his arms open, before a green light enveloped him and sent him flying up and out of the gymnasium.

"Um, Otto, I think you blasted someone."

Otto blinked at Sette in confusion and looked at her hands, which were smoking. "What happened?"

Back in the ring, Deed activated her Twin Blades and took a defensive stance.

"Ohohohohohoho! I see you can use two, huh?" Kodachi laughed and twirled her rope in her hand. "You shall see that you aren't as good as you imagine!" She and Deed jumped up into the air at the same time. Kodachi called for her ball in mid-air and swung her rope, which was quite obviously a rod disguised as a rope by this time, at the ball, Deed crossed her arms above her head the blades lit behind her.

"Twin Blade..." Deed trailed off as she recalled something Ranma had said to her in training.

*Flashback...*

_"It's not always what you know, or what you don't know, or what your opponent's using. Using a move that you know is always good. But the best moves are always used when you modify them on the fly."_

_"Really?" Deed asked, blinking._

_"No, I just made that up."_

_"GAAAH!" Deed yelled as Ranma laughed at her and tripped her up._

_"But I wasn't lying. My best moves are always modified on the fly." Ranma smirked at her._

*End Flashback*

Deed's eyes glinted as the ball rushed towards her, her blades were surrounded by an orange aura of power. "BREAKER!" She screamed, swinging her blades forward, destroying the ball, hitting Kodachi in the upper chest and slamming her down, hard, through the mat and into the floor, her body surrounded by an aura of energy as Kodachi was forced through the mat.

Everyone was silent as Deed landed on the mat silently, waiting.

The referee walked up to the Kodachi-shaped hole and peered down. Kodachi was alive, but clearly out of the fight, skin smoking as she groaned. "Champion Kodachi Kuno is out of the fight! The winner is Deed Saotome!" She yelled, gesturing to the brown-haired girl, who was starting to blush at the cheers she was getting.

**"And there you have it, folks! Deed is the winner of this big match!"** Sein was all smiles as she watched the way people were cheering for her sister.

Kodachi groaned and climbed back into the ring, panting and groaning with each move. When Deed looked at her curiously, she stood up tall and laughed softly. "My, my. That was the best match I ever had, girl. You are very good. I look forward to seeing you again."

In the stands, Ranma blinked, several times before asking what was on his and Nabiki's minds. "Did she just... Befriend Kodachi?" Who knew that attacks like that could actually work outside of Nanoha's universe?

Nabiki started chuckling. Oh, this was going to be a fun loop.


	3. Numbers in Nerima II

Time Loop

Numbers In Nerima

Chapter Two

Disclaimer: I own none of the series involved, they belong to their respective owners.

* * *

Nove was wearing a red sweat-suit as she looked over the skating rink and rubbed her eyes. "Why are we here at five in the morning?" She asked Ranma, who was putting on his ice skates and shrugged at the shorter redhead.

"Simple, no one else is." He chuckled and looked at Cinque, wearing a light blue one-piece suit and standing, slightly unsteadily, on her skates as she rubbed her good eye. "You okay?" Cinque nodded at him and smiled softly.

"Good." Ranma rubbed his hands together. "Okay then." He smirked as he got on the ice and started moving around. "Been awhile since I did this." He chuckled as he remembered just how hard it had been for him to learn to skate properly.

Cinque shrugged, wondering how hard it could be.

She and Nove both found out a moment later when they went crashing and sliding all over the ice, causing Ranma to chuckle and shake his head in amusement. _So that's what it looked like way back when._ He thought to himself and smirked. "Not that easy, huh?"

Nove grumbled as she pushed herself up and moved so she was on her knees and shook her head, getting some ice shavings out of her hair. "I thought I'd be better on skates than this." She grumbled, getting a laugh from Ranma in response.

"Don't worry about it. Even if you're used to roller-blading, ice skating is different. Thinner surface on your blades and there's a lot less friction."

"But Break Liner doesn't have friction." Nove said as she stood up, slightly unsteadily.

"Magic, not real physics." Not that he used them much anymore. "Anyway, the two of you..." He trailed off, grinning. "We'll start simple... Race around the ice rink until you can stand on your feet."

"Sounds easy enough." Cinque said as she started to move on the ice, a bit slowly at first, but quickly picking up speed, before her eye widened as she saw a large stone, one used for the game "Curling", slide right in front of her. "WAGH!"

Ranma, spinning another stone on his fingertips, shook his head. "Focus, Cinque." He said, before giving Nove a push, causing her to speed out of control. Or so it seemed as Nove, just before she crashed into the wall, actually managed to turn and start skating on her own. "Good, Nove." He said before pushing the stone at her, causing her to jump over it and land awkwardly on her skates, causing the short redhead to fall over onto her butt.

"What the hell?!" Nove looked at him with an expression that showed hurt and confusion.

"Get used to it, Nove, Cinque. Mikado and Azusa are going to do a lot worse." He nodded at her dumbfounded look and smirked. "But, hey, at least you get more time to learn than I did."

"How long did you get?" Cinque asked as she was hit in the face with a ball of fluffy snow.

"Hmm... About three days my first time, I think." He shrugged, it wasn't important.

"Where did you get that snow from?" Nove asked, before ducking a hockey puck.

"Ah ah ah... If you have time to chat, you have time to dodge." Ranma grinned at the two, who suddenly both felt really, really nervous for some odd reason.

---

"Surprised to see you up and out here so early, Wendi."

Blinking, the redhead turned and saw Tre, dressed in workout clothes, walking towards her as she sat in the bleachers, looking down at the ice rink as Ranma worked Cinque and Wendi over. "Oh, hey." She muttered and turned back to the rink, sighing as she watched.

Tre blinked, wondering what was up with that attitude. Wendi was one that gave the least amount of bad attitude to anyone. "What's wrong?"

"The bed was cold this morning." Wendi pouted, getting a nod from Tre as she sat down next to Wendi.

"Uno and Ranma were both gone by the time I woke up this morning. I admit, it... It is rather chilly when you don't have a warm body next to you to wake up to." The tallest of the Nerimaian cyborgs said as she looked at the trio on the ice. "So, Wendi..."

"Hmm?"

"Why Nove?"

Wendi shrugged. "I dunno, I just like her. How about you? You chose the doctor." Wendi blinked as she caught sight of Tre blushing, BLUSHING! Oh dear lords, Tre _never_ blushed in public. "That good?"

"That good." Tre said with a grin as she nodded.

The two stopped talking and just stared at the rear ends of the people who shared their beds as they raced around on the ice.

On the ice, Cinque wondered why she felt left out of something and why she felt it was probably for the better.

A couple hours later, Nove found herself on her back on the ice, her stomach growling loudly as she panted and tried to sit up. "Urgh..." She looked up and waited until she saw Ranma look down at her. "You're sadistic."

"And you're short." Ranma chuckled and helped her up. "But, we should head back, it's almost time for everyone to be up and eating anyway." Nove, when she got up, noticed that Cinque was taking off her skates while talking to Tre and...

"Wendi?" Oh gods, had Wendi seen that debacle out there on the ice? And why was she holding two glasses with steam coming off of them?

"Hey, Nove." The taller redhead smiled and held one glass out to her. "Hot chocolate?"

Blinking a few times, Nove accepted the drink and sighed as she drank the hot liquid and it went down her throat and warmed her body up. "That's good."

Wendi giggled softly at seeing Nove slowly enjoy the hot chocolate. Try as she might, she found the sight of Nove doing something so normal to be very cute. It probably didn't help that Nove didn't frown all that much, at least in irritation, unless she was the one irritating her.

Ranma looked at Tre and blinked at her. "So, what brings you two out here so early?"

"Our beds were cold." Tre muttered and looked around. "Huh, looks like the girl that Cinque's facing down is coming out here."

"With Mikado." Ranma muttered and tapped his chin, before shrugging, it wasn't important. "Come on, let's get back to the dojo." The three nodded and started to follow him.

"You! Short girl! Azusa's sickeningly sweet voice yelled, getting Cinque to grimace and look at the annoyance in her life. "I hope you're prepared to lose Antonette to me."

"His name is Bonta-kun and he's not yours!" Cinque growled at her, causing Wendi and Nove to step away from their short silver-haired sister. Who knew she had such a temper? Nove turned and was prepared to leave the bubbly girl to Cinque's wrath when she ran smack-dab into some guy's chest. Looking up, she blinked at his short, brown hair and blue eyes as he smiled at her.

"My, my. I must admit, my partner is fairly annoying at times." Mikado said, ignoring the way Azusa was wailing about how unfair Mikado was being. "Allow me to make up for her impertinence."

Before Nove could say anything or react, Mikado had lowered his head as his lips claimed hers, causing her eyes to bug out in shock.

A moment later, Mikado raised himself up, smiling. "Ah, your lips make ooomph!" He yelped as he was blasted in the head by a pink blast, sending him flying head over heels onto the ice, where he crashed on his head and spun around a bit.

Wendi, panting as she held her smoking surf-board, glared as she looked at Mikado. "Keep your lips OFF of my girlfriend!"

Sitting up, Mikado chuckled softly. "Well, for what it's worth, she's a very good kisser." He said lightly, only to get blasted again.

"Go on! Say it again! I'll shoot you more if you don't shut the hell up!" Wendi growled, pointing her board at him as Azusa jumped on her back and tried to pull the board away from her.

Ranma, unconcerned with that, was helping Nove up. "You okay?" He asked, cursing himself for forgetting about Mikado's... Unhealthy obsession with kissing people.

Nove twitched slightly and glared at the ice. "...Am I allowed to kill him?" She still had her skates on and she was relatively certain that she could beat his ass in.

"If you want to." Ranma put a hand on Nove's shoulder when she moved towards the rink. "But then the current situation would be ended needlessly soon and would be very, very boring and we'd have nothing to do for the next two weeks."

Everyone turned to blink at him, except for Mikado, who was smoking slightly on the ice.

He shrugged. "What? It would be boring for the next two weeks."

Nove grumbled. "Fine." She turned and started hopping away as she undid her skates. Wendi and Cinque followed her, as did Tre when Ranma nodded to her.

Groaning as he slid up to the edge of the ice rink, Mikado groaned. "Oww... That hurt."

"I bet." Ranma said and looked at Mikado with a very, very cool expression. "Probably not as much as this will though."

"Huh?" Mikado blinked a couple of times.

Then the pain hit.

Tre, Wendi, Nove and Cinque stopped walking as they heard Mikado start screaming. Turning around quickly, they blinked as Ranma was walking towards them, dusting his hands off.

"What did..." Tre trailed off as she saw Mikado... Or what was left of Mikado, on the ground twitching. "...Eww..." She didn't think human parts were supposed to bend that way...

...Or that they could.

---

"It's not funny." Nove complained as Akane, Deed and Otto were all giggling next to each other. "Seriously, it's not!" Her outburst only got the three to start laughing more.

Looking at Uno, who had apparently been up and helping Kasumi around the house, Nove gave her a pleading look. "No, Nove, I am not going to discipline your sisters because they find it funny that a guy kissed you in front of your girlfriend."

Nove groaned and slumped as Otto and Deed laughed louder.

"Don't worry about it." Nabiki shook her head. "That guy, other than traumatizing girls, isn't that dangerous, just annoying."

"He didn't kiss you while your girlfriend was right there." Nove pouted and picked at her food, before blinking as she was picked up and sat down in Wendi's lap. "H...Hey!" Her face turned red as Wendi hugged her from behind.

Soun, previously forgotten by most everyone, finally looked away from his newspaper to see the spectacle in front of him. "Excuse me." He cleared his throat to get Wendi and Nove to look at him. "While it is more socially acceptable for two women to be lovers in this day and age, I'd appreciate it if you two didn't do anything overly romantic at the dinner table."

"Who are you and what did you do with my father?" Nabiki asked after a few moments of blinking.

"WAAAAHHH!! MY DAUGHTER DOESN'T RECOGNIZE HER OWN FATHER!!" Soun suddenly started crying, waterfalls of tears flowing out of his eyes.

"Muuuuch better." Nabiki nodded and went back to eating, ignoring the crying man.

"WAAHHH! Everyone's ignoring me!"

"Anyway..." Ranma spoke up, ignoring Soun as he cried some more. "Nove, Cinque, we'll head back to..."

"No you won't, boy." Genma spoke up, looking at his son seriously. "I've allowed this... Farce to go on long enough, but you need to go to school and..."

"I do?" Ranma blinked, interrupting Genma, who looked at him indignantly.

"Yes! If you don't then..."

"Tre." Ranma said, getting the purple-haired woman to nod and pull out a slip of paper and toss it to Genma. "As you can see, I was prepared for this, since Tre and I went to the school and did some placement tests during the past few days."

"When the heck did you find time?" Genma asked, blinking, he was sure that he hadn't seen Ranma doing anything other than building the extra rooms for all the girls or training Deed for that gymnastics match.

"I had to leave Deed alone for a few hours while I was training her." Ranma smirked as Deed blinked a few times. "Well, Tre and I went to the school and I did some placement testing." He shrugged and chuckled. "Turns out that I'm far too good for any school in Japan, so I've got the equivalent of a High School Diploma right now and I could easily go to any University in Japan if I felt like it, but..." He shrugged. "I'm being lazy for awhile, so, no thanks."

"Bu...Bu...Bu..."

"Is he part pig or something?" Sein asked, poking the larger man as he seemed to be in a state of shock.

Ranma chuckled and shrugged. "You know, I never did find out. Anyway, later I..." He blinked as he caught sight of Tre giving him a look from the corner of her eyes. "Actually, Nabiki..."

"Hmm?" She blinked at him a few times. "What?"

"You know how to deal with Mikado and Azusa..." When she groaned and nodded, he smirked. "You take Nove and Cinque for a bit, I got some stuff to deal with for a bit."

"Why should I? Just name one good reason why I..."

"Sinestro."

"..." Nabiki grimaced and sighed. "Fine..." She looked at Nove and Cinque. "Alright, you two, come with me to the rink, anyone else who wants to follow is welcome to." She got up and left, followed by Cinque, Wendi and Nove, the last one looked at Ranma who waved at her as she shrugged and left.

Who was she to ask what Ranma was going to do in his spare time?

Otto, Deed, and Sein blinked as they watched Uno and Tre take Ranma upstairs, well, they were going upstairs before stopping to let Dieci come downstairs, rubbing her eyes and sitting at the table. "Morning." She muttered. "Where's everyone else?"

"You overslept." Sein smiled at her sleepy sister. "As for..." She trailed off as she heard Tre start screaming loudly, causing her to blush. "Okay... I think I want to leave now..."

Akane, Soun and Genma all twitched for different reasons.

Akane because there were three perverts doing *that* in her house.

Soun because he saw his dream crashing down around him.

Genma because he really didn't like either Uno or Tre. They were far too headstrong in his opinion.

As for Kasumi?

She was in the kitchen, smiling and humming softly. Oh, she didn't mind what Ranma was doing with his girlfriends. After all, it was his business what he did with them.

---

Later Sette found herself and Dieci walking down the street, enjoying the sights of everything around them. Sette was rather liking the fact that her tie-dye shirts, bell-bottom pants that hugged her legs and curves, bandanna and yellow sunglasses got her free flowers from American tourists and the neat necklace with a peace sign on it that she was wearing now was a nice addition in her opinion.

"Why do you dress like that?" Dieci asked as the two turned the corner.

Sette shrugged. "No clue. Dad gave it to me, I like it though."

"You're a lot livelier than you used to be." Dieci said softly as she smiled at the pink-haired girl. "I'm glad."

"Me too." Sette smiled and blinked as the two came across a park where a kid ran up to them, crying. "Uh..."

"Ne...Neechan..." The little girl sobbed at Dieci and Sette, getting an uncomfortable look from the two.

"What's wrong?" Dieci asked as she knelt down to the girl.

"A meanie took all my money." The kid sniffled and nearly dragged the two to the park. A tent was set up in the park that had one side open, a table in front of a rather large man that looked...

"Is that a living King of Hearts?" Dieci asked as she looked at the man.

"Nope!" The man smiled at her. "I'm known as the Gambling King. I never lose any card games that I play."

Dieci scratched her head. "Isn't that impossible? The statistical odds of such a feat are so low that there's no possible way for a normal person to win. Especially using cards like those."

The man chuckled and shook his head. "Not at all. Just sit and watch as I win again." In front of him, a little girl was sniffling angrily as she reached for one of the cards in the Gambling King's hand.

Sette blinked as the girl pulled away a card that had an old woman on it and cried in dismay. "Say, Dieci.."

"Yeah?"

"Did he have a card that was stuck out and that girl picked it?"

The brown haired cyborg nodded as she narrowed her eyes at the rather fat guy. "He's cheating."

"Yep." Sette nodded as she saw what the guy did right there. "Hiding cards up his sleeves." They were rather thankful for their enhanced eyesight, allowing them see him moving his hands so fast.

"Wish Sein was here." Dieci muttered softly, she could get over this easily enough.

"Someone say my name?" Sein said as she popped up behind them, getting her sisters to jump out of fright. "Gambling? Isn't that illegal?" She asked the fat guy in the tent, who shrugged.

"Maybe, but no one's said I have to stop."

"Sounds good to me." Sein said, shrugging and blinking as Sette whispered into her ear. "You sure?"

Sette nodded and took over for the girl when she lost. "So..." She pulled out some money and put it on the table. "How about we play a quick game? If I win, you give everyone their stuff back."

"If I win, I get your money, huh?" The Gambling King smiled and shuffled the cards. "What game should we play? But, you see, I won a lot more than that amount of money, I don't think it would be fair if we played for that amount of money."

Sette shrugged. "I could always just rat out that you're gambling with children." Granted, she was technically a child too, but...

The Gambling King frowned and dealt out some cards. "Fine... Poker then. One hand."

Sette nodded and picked up her five cards and frowned softly. How the heck did one play Poker anyway?

Behind the Gambling King, just over his shoulder, was Sein, looking in on his hand as he had some cards of various amounts, but they were all over the place and of different suits. The blue-green haired girl blinked as he quickly, far quicker than most people, but not her, could keep up with, reached into his sleeves and pulled out some Aces, four of them, of different suits, causing him to smile brightly.

Sein frowned, that just wasn't right, she didn't know anything of Poker, but she did know when someone cheated. Grabbing his chair, she used her IS power and made it phase through the ground, causing him to fall to the ground with a crash, his cards falling out of his sleeves.

"Well, I think that means I win, right?" Sette said, smiling as she pointed to all the cards falling out of his sleeves.

"No! Just a fluke, there's no urk!" His eyes widened as he was lifted up calmly, slowly and looked into the face of Dieci as she glared at him while squeezing his neck.

"You torment children for fun, profit and a lot of other things. I bet if someone gave you enough money, you'd strap a six-year-old to a table and do horrible experiments to them, wouldn't you?"

"Well..." The Gambling King said in a strained voice. "M...Urk."

"I thought so. Now..." Dieci's eyes flashed a bit. "You will give all these children back everything that you stole from them, or I may... Get upset." Seeing his eyes widen, she nodded and put him down as he agreed to her.

The Gambling King couldn't empty his pockets fast enough and pack up.

"Oh..." Dieci spoke up as he started to leave. "If I see you in this town again..." The Gambling King's eyes widened as a large cannon popped into Dieci's hands out of nowhere. "I'll be using you as target practice. Got it?"

"Y...Yes!"

Dieci smiled pleasantly. "Good."

---

Hours later...

Kasumi blinked as Nove and Cinque nearly dragged themselves into the house. Nove looked like her hair had frostbite while Cinque's hair was horribly out of place as they dragged themselves into the house. Wendi followed them, looking horribly shell-shocked as Nabiki pushed her into the room, shaking her head. "What happened, Nabiki?"

"You'd think that they never went through a training session." Nabiki shrugged.

"Ice... Flying... Not normal." Nove muttered as some frost dropped from her hair and splattered on the ground.

"Okay, so maybe I shouldn't have used Saotome's methods of training on girls that aren't used to it and didn't ask him to be their teacher." Nabiki muttered softly. She wasn't the only one of the loopers that still got nightmares on occasion from Ranma's training.

And she had thought that Genma was bad when she first heard about it.

---

Later on, Otto was driving her bike, rather slowly by her standards, down the streets, just enjoying herself before stopping as she saw a small piglet running, full speed, from that kleptomaniac that was bothering Cinque lately.

"Charlotte! Charlotte!" Asuza yelled happily as she chased the scared pig through the crowds. "Don't go to that ugly girl, Charlotte!"

Otto twitched, badly. Compared to her twin, Deed, or any of her other sisters she wasn't the prettiest or most feminine girl around, but she didn't think she was _ugly_. "...Ray Storm." She said softly as she held up her hand.

The resulting explosion and the flying kleptomaniac wasn't quite as soft.

Looking at the pig, Otto was silent for a moment. "...Ryoga, right?"

"Bwee?" The pig looked surprised and blinked several times as Otto got it right in one guess.

"Thought so." Otto said and put the pig in her lap. "Lemme go find you some hot water." She revved her bike up and roared down the street, the cursed form of Ryoga trembling from the wind and worried he'd fly off at any given moment. Super tough as he was, his pig form just wasn't designed to handle the poundings he could.

"Here you go." Otto said as she put the pig down after a few minutes of driving on the street.

"Bwee?" The pig looked around, not sure what to make of this.

"Public baths, have fun." Otto drove off, leaving Ryoga, who was considerably happier, to run off across the street.

Which was sad, since he meant to turn around and run into the building behind him.

---

Two weeks later...

Nove, dressed in a red skin-tight body suit, sighed slightly as she stood on her ice skates in the entry way to the skating rink. Looking at Cinque, who was dressed in a similar looking outfit, only light blue, she shook her head. "Are you sure you wanna go through with this?"

Nodding, Cinque put a light blue eye patch over her bad eye and sighed softly. "Well, I doubt I'd win any beauty awards like this." Cinque smirked as Nove rolled her eyes. "Anyway, yes, I do want to go through with this." She twitched and growled slightly. "That... Brat!" She spat the word out with such venom that Nove looked around, wondering if maybe the walls were starting to melt. "She wants my Bonta-kun! That's mine, not hers, dammit!"

"Uh..." Nove sweat-dropped, unsure how to explain it, but just shrugged it off. It didn't matter, she was actually looking forward to facing down that asshole who kissed her.

In the stands, Ranma shook his head as he sat near the ice rink. "Well, this will be fun." He chuckled as Tre and Uno sat on either side of him, Otto and Deed sat in front of them while Sette, being as tall as she was, sat right behind them. He didn't get too many chances to actually see this match without taking part in it somehow.

"You'd think so." Uno said with a small smile on her face as she got settled in. "So, why are they fighting again?" She honestly had forgotten since she had taken a job. Dr. Tofu was an interesting medic, but he really needed to get over that phobia of that Tendo girl.

Really, what kind of doctor went to pieces so easily?

"Where's Wendi, Dieci and Sein?" Otto asked, looking around for her sisters.

**"Welcome, ladies and gentleman to the ack!"**

"Sorry about that folks!" A new voice spoke up over the loud speakers. "My name is Sein, and these are my sisters, Wendi and Dieci!"

"HEY!" Wendi yelled happily, getting several people to wince from the volume.

"Yo." Dieci said in a much calmer tone of voice.

"We're your announcers for the evening!" Sein was heard giggling. "So... Let's get this show... On the road!" Anyone who could see Sein would see her standing up while holding the mic, making dramatic poses before pointing at the ice.

"Coming out first from the red corner, is the champions, the Golden Pair, from Kolkhoz High, Azusa Shiratori and Mikado Sanzenin." Dieci was heard speaking up.

"BOOO!!!" The vast majority of the males in the audience were jeering Mikado as he skated onto the ice. Interestingly enough, there were a few female boos in there, not that they were easily heard over the males due to the numbers involved.

Sweat-dropping as Wendi, thankfully without her mic up at her face, joined in on the booing, Sein pointed to the other corner. "And the challengers! From the blue corner! Cinque and Nove!"

Most people didn't know how to cheer for the newcomers, it didn't stop most of the audience for yelling at them to try and beat the pants off of "Golden Pair".

In the stands, Otto blinked and looked around. "Not well liked, are they?"

"Well, when one steals everything and gives it a French-sounding name and the other one is a sexual predator in the making, you have an easy time hating them." Ranma shook his head as he looked at the ice. Idly he wondered how well Nove and Cinque would do, but it was okay, he'd support them regardless.

Back in the booth, Wendi grabbed her mic and cleared her throat. "Here are the rules."

"There are rules?" Sein asked her, blinking and looking down at her paper. "I thought that there were no rules?"

"Just that you can only fight if on skates." Dieci said as she looked at the paper in front of her. "Other than that, have fun."

"So..." Sein began, grinning.

"START!" All three yelled at the same time.

On the ice, Mikado and Azusa took off like a rocket in comparison to Nove and Cinque, who moved in seperate directions to avoid the first attack. The Golden Pair split as Mikado chased after Nove and Azusa chased after Cinque.

"I must say, you do skate quite well." Mikado said casually to Nove as he slid out of the way of one her punches. "Your fighting style on the other hand, it could use some work." He smirked and grabbed her arm. "Perhaps I could show you a few moves after we've won the match?" He smiled charmingly.

"Get bent." Nove said as she slipped from his grasp, dropped to the ice and tried to sweep his feet out from under him, only to have him jump over her sweep, grab her shoulders and start to spin in place while holding her.

"Well, I must say, it's too bad for you, your girlfriend annoyed and insulted me and the ice, I think I shall punish you for that."

Nove winced as she started to get pummeled by his attacks. She fought back as well as she could, but considering that she was spinning before the blows were rained on her body, it made it harder for her to try and fight back. Thankfully, even though each blow was fairly strong, none of them were able to really hurt her. Gimacing as Mikado kneed her in the gut, she was sent back and skidded along the ice, grabbing her stomach as she circled around. "Dammit." She muttered to herself and looked over as Cinque, hoping she was doing better.

The smaller cyborg wasn't doing so good herself as she and Azusa traded blows. It wouldn't have been so bad if the little brat hadn't tried to kick at her eye-patch and threaten to damage it. If there was one thing Cinque hated more than someone trying to take her Bonta-kun was someone trying to destroy her eye-patch. The eye-patch was simply because she liked them and they kept people from freaking out about her missing eye too much.

Gimacing, Cinque flowed backwards from one of Azusa's attacks, trying to get some breathing room. _Better than I thought._ She thought to herself as she met up with Nove while Mikado and Azusa skated towards them.

"It looks like the challengers are having some problems. Can they over-come this unbelievable onslaught of offense from the champions and win?" Sein's voice was heard.

"COME ON, NOVE!" Wendi was heard yelling. Not through her mic, but over the roar of the crowd, she was just that loud.

In the stands, Sette was frowning softly. "Those two are better than this..."

Ranma shrugged, though he agreed with Sette on the matter. "They're not used to fighting on ice, and even with myself and Nabiki training them, they've still only had a couple of weeks to get ready." Granted, it only took him a couple of days to be somewhat prepared to fight on the ice, it still wasn't easy for him.

Then again, not everyone had the same learning curve he did.

Back on the ice, Nove and Cinque met up and were skating next to each other. "Nove." Cinque looked at her younger sister. "If we don't do something, we're not going to win this."

The redhead nodded before smirking. "Remember what we were told? Their best move?"

Cinque winked a few times. "The couple cleaver? You want to go through that?" Her sister must have been insane to do it.

Nove nodded as she chuckled and grinned. "Yeah... Ready?"

"This is suicide, alright," Cinque sighed and grabbed Nove's outstretched hands, "here we go."

"What's this?" Sein spoke up over the loudspeakers. "It looks like the challengers have a plan, or at least it seems like it. Nove has Cinque's hands and is spinning... Like a top..."

"Not quite that fast." Dieci said and looked at Mikado and Azusa. "It seems like the champions have their own plan to counter this, Mikado has Azusa's legs and is lifting her up... Azusa caught Cinque's legs, now they have the challengers set up!"

On the ice, Mikado smirked and suddenly started spinning around and around, faster and faster as he held Azusa, who held Cinque, who was holding Nove, the three females in the air spinning around faster and faster.

Tre winced as she watched that. "Okay, now that would make me sick."

"Think they have a plan?" Otto asked Deed, who shrugged, she was as clueless as her twin.

"NOW!" Cinque and Nove yelled as the same time as they let go, causing Nove to fly up into the air. Almost as if it was on cue, Mikado let go of Azusa as the kleptomaniac let go of Cinque, sending her crashing into the wall that surrounded the ice rink, getting it to collapse slightly and cover her in debris.

As she flipped up into the air, Nove glared down at the guy who kissed her weeks ago. She didn't mind kissing, but only if it was someone she liked, and boy, she did NOT like this jack-ass. Summoning up her Break Liner, just enough to cover her hands, she put her hands behind her, forming an invisible wall, before she pushed off, her feet first. "Super..." She started calling out, concentrating her magic around her blades. "Nove..." She formed another Break Liner under her hands and gave herself another push down. "KIIIIICK!" She screamed as she rushed forward, like a rocket.

Smirking, Mikado ran a hand through his hair. "Oh really? Spinning Diamond Pirouette Counter!" He called out, doing a quick spin in place before kicking straight up at Nove as she came down, their blades crossing and creaking.

Nove glared down as she seemed to be held in place in mid-air while Mikado smirked up at her. That is, until Nove gave a small grin and twisted her leg, getting a surprised look from Mikado as the blades cracked and Nove seemed to fall straight off of the blades, bouncing on the ice before sliding to her knees, her right skate blade, the one she used to kick at Mikado, was cracked and chipped.

Mikado chuckled at her. "Is that all?"

"Check your blades." Nove smirked at him, causing Mikado to look up as his blade cracked, chipped, before shattering on his skate, causing him to lose his balance and fall to the ice.

Growling, Mikado got up and glared at Nove. "No one... And I mean NO ONE, makes a fool out of me on the ice!" He cried out angrily and pushed towards Nove, riding on his one good blade.

"Woah! It looks like the champion has snapped!" Wendi called out through over the loud speakers. "He's barely moving towards his opponent, who's just standing there, what is going through the challenger's mind?"

Nove winced slightly, her skate was shot, however, it was still together, unlike his. Smirking as she ducked under a punch, Nove grabbed Mikado from behind and wrapped her arms around his mid-section, her hands crossed and grabbing each of her wrists. "Well, as Subaru always says... With a single blow..." She then lifted Mikado up, getting a surprised yell from him and a shocked look on his face as gravity left him. "DESTROY!" Nove screamed as she bent over backwards and _**SLAMMED**_ the back of Mikado's head into the ice, knocking him out in an instant.

"WOAH! Nove did a German Suplex on ice! That was spectacular!" Sein yelled as people in the stands cheered for what just happened.

"Is that even possible?" Dieci asked, looking as Sein and Wendi, both of whom shrugged at that.

On the ice, Nove's damaged skate decided that it had enough abuse and shattered, causing Nove to slip and crash onto her back on the ice, since she hadn't let go of Mikado, she was still in the suplex position. "Oww..." Nove groaned slightly. "That hurt."

"Mikado." Azusa gasped as she saw how her partner was beaten. "Grr..." She glared at Cinque, who was getting out of the light rubble at that moment. "You... Your fault!" She screamed, jumping in the air and lashing out with a kick at Cinque's head.

Calmly, Cinque reached up and blocked the attack with one hand, causing Azusa's eyes to widen in fright before Cinque tapped her blade and threw her back a couple of feet.

Flipping in the air to land on her feet, Azusa pouted and skated forward again, intent on finishing this in the next blow.

It never came.

The instant that Azusa landed on the ice, Cinque calmly snapped her finger, whispered something and Azusa's skating blades exploded, causing her to squack indignantly as she tumbled across the ice.

"Looks like I win." Cinque said as Azusa crashed into the wall, head first, knocking herself out.

"And the winners are the challengers! Nove and Cinque!" Sein and Wendi said at the same time as people in the stands cheered loudly.

While he wasn't cheering loudly, Ranma still had a smile on his face as he looked at the two standing proudly after their victory. "That was cool."

Uno chuckled softly. "Never would have thought to use Break Liner like that myself." She smiled and looked at Ranma. "Thanks for making sure that I didn't miss this."

Tre narrowed her eyes at Cinque and Nove. "...Mind if I spar with them later?"

"Wow! I gotta learn how to do that kick!" Sette was practically bouncing in her seat as her eyes sparkled under her yellow-tinted sunglasses.

Otto tapped her chin and looked back at Sette. "But you don't use a lot of kicks in your style, even though your legs are built for it."

Deed smirked slightly. "Hey, dad, think we'll have more challenges like this in the future?"

Listening to them all, Ranma could only chuckle at hearing all of this. "Well, Deed, to answer your question, this is Nerima, martial-arts weirdness capital of Tokyo, Japan. There will be plenty of weird things to have fun with later on."

---

Later in the changing rooms, Nove sighed as she finally got out of that chilly one-piece and started to put on regular clothes. "I'm glad that's over." Looking at Cinque, Nove was still slightly put off by just how _smug_ her shorter sister was at that moment, but Nove guessed that if anyone had a right to be smug, it was Cinque.

"NOVE!" An upbeat voice nearly made her jump out of her skin as she was hugged from behind tightly. "You did wonderful out there!"

"Wendi!" Nove gasped as she was swung around. "I'm not dressed!"

Blinking, Wendi conceded that part and put Nove down. "Sorry, but I got so excited watching you beat the crap out of that jerk that I couldn't wait."

"Trust me, she almost jumped out onto the ice." Dieci rolled her eyes as she stood at the doorway, before stepping to the side, allowing Ranma in.

"HEY!" Nove yelped as he walked in. "Can't I get some privacy?" She was only in her bra and panties after all.

"You ain't got anything I ain't ever seen before, Nove." Ranma smiled at her, but looked away out of courtesy as she scrambled and got on a black pair of pants and a red shirt. "Anyway, you two did great out there."

"Thank you." Cinque smiled as she adjusted her coat.

"Yeah, well..." Nove blinked as things began to shake before the wall behind the lockers suddenly exploded inwards. "What the hell?!" She yelped as she grabbed Cinque out of the way of debris and fell onto her back.

"Ranma... Shampoo kill!" A purple-haired, red-eyed girl in a short dress holding a metal beach ball on a stick in each hand glared at Nove. "Short hair no trick Amazon." She lunged for Nove, her arms above her head, intent on smashing Nove's head with the bonbourii in her hands, Nove's amber eyes were wide as the maces descended down in painfully slow motion.

They never reached as the purple-haired girl found herself without her weapons, sending her off-balance and tumbling across the room to slam into the wall.

Blinking, Nove looked at Ranma, who was tossing the weapons out the hole in the wall where the girl came from. "Run." He whispered to her, jerking his head to the hole as Nove nodded, got up and ran, Wendi, Dieci and Cinque following her.

"Who you?" Shampoo looked at Ranma with narrowed eyes. "You helping enemy of Amazons, you die." She lunged forward with the intent of taking his head off in one blow. After all, no mere male could withstand an Amazon's power and fury. No one in the world could.

That didn't explain why she found herself flat on the ground, gasping for air as an insanely over-powered force pushed her into the ground, sucking out the very air she was breathing.

"Head home, little girl before I actually get angry." Ranma said very, very calmly. "If you wanted to fight with Nove, that's fine, but you don't ever try to kill her or her sisters when I'm around."

Shampoo shivered, she could have sworn that the male was tapping into some sort of version of the Soul of Ice that her great grandmother spoke of but hadn't shown her yet. "Ama...Amazon not... Not stop until enemy is dead." She looked up and tried to force herself up as she looked at Ranma's retreating back. "Sh...Shampoo kill..."

Ranma stopped walking at the hole and turned to her, his eyes narrowed at her as the force on her body seemed to triple in an instant. "Last warning. Head home. You want to come back, make sure you bring Cologne. If I see you trying to kill one of those girls without Cologne around, I'll make sure that you can never live as an Amazon again." With that, he was gone.

No one threatened Ranma's girls. Especially since most of them thought of him as a father.

---

When the small group was walking to the Tendo home, Nove turned and looked at Ranma with narrowed eyes. "What was that all about?! Why did she get me confused with you?"

"Yes, I'm rather interested myself." Uno said as she walked alongside Ranma. "Maybe the rest of our sisters should be worried that they'll be confused for you?"

Ranma shook his head and sighed softly. "Well, you know how I loop in this universe, right?" The others nodded as he stretched slightly. "Anyway, my loops start right around the time I arrive in Nerima. However, I still have past history from before that likes to follow me around. Case in point, that Amazon."

Wendi twitched heavily. "Can I shoot her?"

Ranma smiled at that and shook his head. "Not right now. If she shows up later on her own, feel free to, but..."

"You still haven't explained it!" Nove all but exploded at him. "Come on! What's going on with her?!"

Ranma sighed. "Well, a few months, this world's time, ago I was in China and I met her as she won her village's yearly martial arts tournament."

"Jilted lover?" Uno asked, but blinked as Ranma laughed.

"Hell no. Well, anyway, I was, still am, to be honest, under a curse." When the others stopped, he blinked. "What?"

"Curse?" Cinque and Dieci asked as the same time as Ranma nodded.

"Oh yes. Fell into some springs in China where I would take the form of whatever drowned in that pool last with a splash of cold water and warm water turns me back to my original form."

"So..." Nove trailed off as Ranma smiled softly.

"Spring of the drowned girl. Turned me into a short, redheaded female version of myself."

"Short... Redheaded... Girl..?" Nove twitched with each word that she muttered out. "...How does..." She trailed off as Ranma's form seemed to shimer, shrink and change, his hair turning red, his body losing mass and gaining curves as he turned into a she.

"...Nove has a twin?" Wendi asked, goggling as she looked at the now female Ranma.

"Other than the hair length, they do look alike." Uno said as she recovered from the shock. "Wait, can you two.."

Ranma chuckled and moved right next to Nove.

"Oh my god! Nove does have a twin!" Wendi squealed and hugged both of them. "They look the same!"

"ACK!" Nove gasped and flailed her arms up and down. "Wendi, let go!"

Dieci cleared her throat as Wendi did just that. "Might I ask how this applies to Nove though?"

Ranma shook her head and with a shimmer, she was a he again. "Okay, well, as a girl, myself and Genma went into the village and ate food at the grand prize table." Seeing the deadpan looks on their faces, he shrugged. "Yeah, not my best moment. Well, the champion, Shampoo got pissed about it. I thought "hey, martial arts tournament, I'll just beat her and prove that I was better, so I'll be the champion"," Ranma sighed heavily.

"No wonder she followed you all over the place." Nove grumbled. "Okay, so she thinks that I'm you just with cut hair and I ate her prize food."

"If it was that simple, she wouldn't have bothered coming from nearly Tibet all the way to Japan." Ranma shook his head. "Turns out that her people have laws concerning outsiders and combat. If an outsider female should defeat a female Amazon warrior, the defeated warrior shall kiss the one who beat her on the cheek and chase her down to the ends of the Earth to kill her."

Wendi twitched as Ranma raised an eyebrow at her. "...What about if a man beats a woman?"

"Kiss on the lips and then marry them. The two kisses are called the Kiss of Death and Marriage respectively." Ranma shook his head. "Amazons are very bull-headed and determined. When they say "ends of the earth", they will literally chase you anywhere in the world."

"So I gotta worry about her trying to kill me in my sleep?!" Nove exclaimed, suddenly nervous. Granted, she could go several days without sleep, but it never helped her when she went that far if she had to.

"Nah, I'll deal with it." Ranma waved her concerns off. "Some Amazons are more reasonable than others, so, don't worry about it." He walked off, before stopping, turning and smiling at them. "Come on, let's go out for dinner, just the six of us."

Nove didn't know why, but for some reason, she felt a lot better because of that. "Sure."

---

As she watched the group eat, Shampoo narrowed her eyes. By law, she was supposed to give the male that had beaten her the kiss of marriage. However, as full of Amazon pride as she was and how stubborn she was, she still was able to recognize that she was fully out-classed by the person sitting in that restaurant eating with her target.

It annoyed her, if she was honest, because she was an Amazon, a true warrior, a hunter, someone who never stopped at what she was doing.

And it meant nothing to that jerk, as good-looking as he was, who could stop her with just a glance and that weird ability. She had never heard of or felt anything like that before. Hell, she had felt the elders get snappy at various outsiders before, and even at their strongest, at least from what she had seen, none of them had done anything like that before.

Another thing that bothered her was that he knew of her great-grandmother. Not only did he know of her, he called her by name. Not many could do something like that, even fewer would do so without an ounce of fear.

The only question she had was...

What should she do now?

The simple answer was, of course, to head back to China and explain things and hopefully, _hopefully_ not get into too much trouble.

_Oh, who am I kidding? I go back and those old crones are going to punish me somehow._ Shampoo sighed and got up from her spot as the group in the restaurant got up and paid for their meal.

Dying in battle was one thing, but getting slaughtered by someone who far outclassed you without back-up was just stupid.

(---)

Nove looked at Ranma, who was chuckling softly, in confusion. "What is it?" She blinked as he smirked at her.

"Seems like that Amazon doesn't know what to do right now. She was watching us eat dinner."

"She was?" Wendi frowned and really, really wished that she was better at long range sniping. Maybe she'd ask Dieci to help her out in the near future to deal with stuff like that.

"Nah, I don't know for sure," Ranma laughed as he heard Wendi and Nove face-fault into the pavement while walking next to Uno, "but I know how Amazons think, even if she wasn't going to attack us, she was going to do some recon work to find out what she could before making a decision." Over the time he had spent looping, his power and ability had grown to a point that it was actually harder to sense people who basically "blended into" the background like Amazons tried to do. He wasn't the only one, so many of the loopers didn't have any ability to sense weak people like the non-loopers.

Nove rubbed her forehead. "Fine, fine..." She sighed as she walked with Ranma, Uno and Wendi silently for awhile. "Hey... Ranma?"

"Hmm?" He looked at her, there was a look of concern and worry on her face. "What is it?"

"You've been looping for a long time, right?" He nodded at that, wondering what she was going for here. "I just started looping but... What was it like? At first before you started meeting others?"

"Before everything got weird?" He sighed. "Lonely, actually. I was the only one in this universe that was looping. At first I thought, 'hey, I can settle all the problems that have occurred, I can make things right' and tried to but..."

"They never ended, huh?" Uno asked him, frowning slightly as he shook his head slowly.

"Never. That was... Well, several millennium ago, at least." He sighed while shaking his head. "I lost count after the first... Couple thousand loops in this universe, never mind all the other weird loops. Why do you ask?"

"Do... Do you think that we'll end up getting like you and the others?"

"Like me? How?"

"Unhinged and weird for starters." Nove blinked as he laughed at that. "What?"

"Most likely, most likely." Ranma shook his head, chuckling. "The fact is, Nove, you either have to become a little unhinged, or you'll go insane, and it's never fun."

After hearing that, Nove was rather quiet the rest of the way to the dojo.

(---)

Tre looked up as the group came into the house and frowned, though it wasn't out of anger, but rather worry, considering she saw Nove and Wendi both silent and contemplative. Such a thing... "What happened?" She looked at Ranma, who waved it off.

"Just food for thought." Ranma smiled at her and looked around. "Where's the others?"

"Otto went for a bike ride and Sette went with her, Deed got a visit from that girl that she beat in the match."

"Kodachi?" Ranma interrupted Tre and frowned softly. "What did she want?" Nothing good could ever come from...

Tre shrugged and jerked her thumb at the dojo. "They went there about an hour ago and I haven't... Ranma?" She trailed off, blinking as Ranma took off for the dojo, well, he didn't run, but he moved at a brisk pace that was, frankly, worrying. The five looked at each other for a moment before they followed Ranma, stopping only when he opened the door to the dojo and stared stupidly in.

Cinque, Nove, Wendi, Uno and Tre blinked as they looked in. On the floor was Kodachi and Deed, both sitting with various instruments around themselves and chatting peacefully.

Such a thing was so unheard of in Nerima that Ranma could have sworn he felt the world try and split open, just to correct the "wrongness" of having something peaceful happen at the Tendo Dojo.

Deed blinked and smiled at her sisters and 'father'. "Hi dad. Kodachi was just helping me with my technique and we've been talking about how to best use this stuff to deal with people outside of matches."

"I...See..." Ranma blinked, his mouth slightly agape. "Um... Good job, keep it up and don't destroy anything."

The next moment was rather unsettling in its own right as _both_ Deed _and_ Kodachi started laughing... Very similarly.

It was more than enough to get Tre, Cinque, Uno, Nove and Wendi to scramble away from the door while all Ranma did was twitch slightly. After dealing with the ten Naga clones all laughing at the same time, this was nothing. It was still troublesome though. "Uh... Right... Good job." He twitched slightly and walked away.

In the living room, Wendi trembled and looked at her sisters. "Deed's lost it! How can she just laugh like that?!" She got no answers from Uno, who had a shocked expression on her face, nor anything from Nove, who was rubbing her ears, or Tre or Cinque, both of whom had hair sticking out at odd angles due to the shock of Deed, dear lords _DEED_, laughing like _that._

Walking into the room, Ranma shrugged and shook his head. "Not sure, but she's having fun, so... Don't stop her when she's not hurting anyone." The others could only nod.

It was safer that way.

Clearing her throat, Tre, having finally recovered, looked at the small group and frowned softly. "Why'd it take you so long to get back from the rink?"

"Had a crazy lady attack Nove and then Ranma took us to dinner to explain." Cinque muttered and twitched slightly, the sheer _thought_ of Deed laughing like that still gave her shivers. She needed to have a talk with Deed and ask her to never do anything like that again.

"Oh." Tre said, slightly upset at that. She would have liked to have gone as well.

Nove blinked as she could _feel_ the tension rising. "Excuse me." She mumbled and quickly left the room, Wendi and Cinque following her.

None of them wanted to be in the room at that time. Passing Akane, who was just coming out of Nabiki's room, Cinque warned her that it might have been a good idea to not be downstairs at that moment.

Ranma sighed and walked over to Tre and pulled her to the couch, sitting down and pulling the tall, purple-haired woman into his lap and held her gently. It took Tre a few moments before she finally relaxed and held herself against him. It didn't hurt when Uno slipped up behind her and put a hand on her shoulder to give quiet support.

It felt nice, very nice, to just sit there, relaxing against Ranma with Uno there. She liked this feeling. For some reason, she had the feeling that she wouldn't be feeling this if it wasn't for this particular loop.

She just wished that this moment would last.

Unseen to the three Genma and Soun both frowned at the display, though for different reasons. Soun, because he couldn't see convincing any of his three daughters to marry Genma's son if things kept going like this.

The reason Genma was frowning?

He honestly missed holding his wife like that. But with the curse...

"What are you doing?" A voice spoke up behind them, getting them to jump in shock and spin, blinking as Sein was leaning through the wall, not damaging it.

"Gah, girl!" Genma hissed and herded her and Soun away from the living room, causing the blue-green-haired girl to blink a few times. "What are you doing?"

Sein shrugged at the larger man. "Nothing much, just saw you two and wondered why you were spying on Uno-nee and Tre-nee."

"That boy's cheating on my daughters!" Soun exploded at her, getting a weird look from Sein as he continued to rant. "He's supposed to marry my daughters but he's sleeping with those women!"

Sein shrugged at that. "Well, Uno-nee and Tre-nee are special cases, that's all."

"Girl, I need to ask you something... How is it that you can fit through walls like that?" Genma was curious and he needed to clarify this with someone.

Sein shrugged and smirked. "Just my IS, Deep Diver, it lets me go through any solid matter I want."

"IS?" Genma blinked at her. "What's that?"

"Just Inherited Skills. All Combat Cyborgs have them." Sein wondered why Genma was asking this, it was common knowledge. At least among her sisters.

Sein honestly didn't even think that other people didn't know what an IS or a Combat Cyborg was. It wasn't her fault that she had only really existed around people who knew what those were.

"Combat Cyborgs?" Genma frowned softly, this was interesting. "Tell me, girl, are those two out there Combat Cyborgs as well?"

"Well, yeah." Sein nodded. "Uno-nee and Tre-nee were two of the first ones that were made."

"I see..." Genma trailed off at that.

Things were definitely going to get interesting now.

---

While things at the Tendo Dojo were happening, Otto and Sette were enjoying the feel of wind through their hair as they drove through the Nerima prefecture. There wasn't much going on, but it was a nice feeling. "I wonder something, Otto."

"Hmm?" The shorter and boyish girl asked as Sette held her tightly as they took a sharp turn. "About what?"

"What do you think about what dad told us?"

"About our futures if dad hadn't looped into our world?" Otto blinked a few times as she pulled the bike to a stop at a local park before taking off her helmet and shaking her head. "I'm not sure. Sounds really..."

"Sucky, huh?" Sette pulled out her sunglasses and looked around the park, before smiling. She was going to enjoy the park today. "Me, Tre-nee and Uno-nee stuck in prison, with you, Deed and Sein-nee working for the church and the rest of our sisters adopted and living with Subaru and Ginga?" She grimaced at that. That really did sound bad.

"Yeah..." Otto nodded as she sighed after locking up her bike to make sure that no one would steal it. "So, what do you want to do next?"

"I'm not sure." Sette admitted as the two walked through the park, just admiring everything. "All this looping and dad still helps us out..." She trailed off as she thought about it.

Otto looked up at her. "What are you thinking?"

"We should get dad a gift." Sette nodded as she smiled softly. After all, Ranma didn't have to do any of what he was doing, so this was, incredibly nice.

(---)

Tatewaki Kuno was enjoying his day, the birds were chirping, well, those that were out at this hour of the day, since the sun was starting to hang low in the sky, and the park was devoid of most commoners at this time except for... "Goddess!" He gasped, seeing his pink-haired goddess in the park. This was his chance, he would finally get to know who she was as he jumped over the hedge that separated the park from the sidewalk before running to the pink haired goddess.

He was less than four feet from her when a green beam suddenly collided with his chest and sent him flying up and out of the park. "The path of the righteous is slow but sure!" Kuno cried out as he disappeared into the distance.

Blinking as she saw a green flash out of the corner of her eye, Sette turned and looked at Otto. "I think you blasted someone."

"Huh?" Otto blinked a few times and looked at her hand, which was smoking lightly. "...Weird."

"Yeah... So, what do you think dad would like as a gift?" Sette asked as the two changed the subject and planned what they were going to do next.

---

Back at the dojo Tre was sleeping, or at least it seemed like it, as she rested her head on Ranma's lap, the rest of her body was across Uno's lap as the three sat on the couch.

"Say, Ranma..."

"Hmm?" He glanced at her, raising an eyebrow. "What is it, Uno?"

"I was wondering, with all the looping that you've been doing in your life, have you ever tried to get out of the loops?"

"Many times." Ranma rolled his eyes as he ran a hand through Tre's short hair, getting a sigh from the sleeping woman. "Why?"

She smiled at him softly, both because he was making things so good for her and her sisters, and because of how he was treating Tre at that moment. "Is there any attempt that you tried that you regretted?"

"Regretted? No. Been looping so long that there's hardly anything I regret anymore." Ranma shook his head at her.

"Well, any attempts that you honestly wish you hadn't tried?"

"Well, no, but there was one that I really screwed up..." Ranma trailed off, sweat-dropping as he thought about it. What the hell had he been thinking?

_Flashback..._

_"You sure this will work?" Professor Saotome, an older man in a lab coat with unkempt gray hair and a gray chin beard, asked Ranma, who shrugged helplessly._

_"At this point, no. But considering that the energies in question can make something happen as long as there's even the smallest chance, we don't have much to lose, do we?"_

_Scratching his head, the scientist shrugged. "Alright then." He tossed a green stone at Ranma. "Give that to Kamina then."_

_"Right." Ranma nodded and walked up to Kamina, who was just standing against a wall. "So... You know what to do, right?"_

_"Turn my Spiral Power to max when I grab that G-Stone and the professor will bombard me with Getter Rays..." Kamina smirked at him. "What's the worst that could happen?"_

_Both the Professor and Ranma shrugged as Ranma tossed Kamina the G-Stone and the professor hit the switch to bombard Kamina with Getter Rays._

_Moments later Ranma blinked as he was on the train to Hogwarts, before he groaned. "Well, that's what it's like when someone divides by Zero, huh?"_

_End Flashback..._

"Suffice to say, we never tried that again." Ranma said with a slight shrug as Uno sweat-dropped heavily. "Live and learn, and in the process destroy a few universes while you're at it."

Uno made a mental note to never try anything that crazy in the future.

* * *

End Notes: Yes, Deed acquired the skill "Noblewoman's Laugh" from Kodachi. If any of you saw the Slayers OVA where Naga was proving she could out-laugh ten of her clones, then, yes, it's just like that. Only worse, since it's Deed, as any Nanoha fan knows is very quiet compared to the likes of Nove or Wendi.

No, I've never seen any version of Getter Robo, but I do know that Getter Rays work like Spiral Power from Gurren Lagann, and the G-Stone from GaoGaiGar is effectively a safe version of both of them, but has the same powerup properties.

Oh yeah, nearly forgot... I had Nove do a shout-out to Gunbuster with "Super Nove Kick" when fighting against Mikado.


	4. Numbers in Nerima III

Time Loops

Numbers in Nerima

Chapter 3

I own nothing, so don't bother suing. It would cost more for everyone in court costs than what you'd get out of me in the end.

* * *

Stretching as she woke up, Dieci looked around her room and smacked her lips a few times before grabbing her towel and wrapping it around her otherwise naked body and heading to the baths. Things had been quiet since the ice-skating match, well, mostly quiet she amended herself as she walked by a window and saw Nove, Tre and Sette sparring with Ranma.

Or more accurately, the three were trying to even tag Ranma cleanly while Deed and Cinque sparred with the panda. It was amusing to watch, she admitted. The panda wasn't too bad at fighting, heck, if he had some magic or other ability to bridge the gap, she honestly could see him being able to fight on even levels with a lot of mages on Mid-childa.

Though considering that Ranma had said that despite everything else, he wouldn't even be close to as good as he was without that panda training him, Dieci wondered if maybe Genma could be a trainer like Nanoha Takamachi was.

If Ranma had heard that he would have suddenly had a violent image of hundreds of mages stuck in the Neko-ken attacking everyone and everything around them.

But Dieci didn't know any of that and after adjusting her towel a bit, walked to the baths, only to stop as she heard a thunk and looked down, her eyes widening as her face turned red. "Bad Ryoga!" She snapped at the little pig, which had a trickle of blood running out of his nose. Putting a hand over the front of her towel where her crotch was, Dieci ran to the baths, hoping to get away from perverted pigs.

---

Sitting on the deck, Akane watched the martial arts display with a slight frown on her face. It was rather... Intimidating how fast everyone was moving, the destruction being wielded and the skill that was being displayed. Honestly she was surprised that other than a few gouges in the ground no other part of the yard was destroyed.

"Don't think about joining in, Akane." Nabiki said as she sat down next to her sister while sipping some coffee. As much as she didn't care for the antics of everyone in this world at times, she still cared for her family. When they weren't being stupid, of course. And seeing Akane have to spend the rest of the loop in the hospital because she got in over her head wasn't what she wanted to see.

Granted she and Ranma could heal her, but she never learned from quick fixes. Nabiki had just... Too much experience with Akane finding out about quick fixes to any problem. Plus she wasn't sure if any of the Numbers actually knew _how_ to hold back. Ranma could take it easily, so could Genma. Akane? Not so much.

"I wasn't." Akane rolled her eyes at that. "I'm good, I'm not that good."

Nabiki stared at her sister stupidly, who started to squirm under the scrutiny. "What?"

"Who are you and what did you do to Akane?"

"I _am_ me!" Akane sighed, exasperated. "But that's just crazy." She pointed as Sette got tossed into the koi pool while Tre and Cinque slammed into each other and fell down, slightly winded from that.

"Yeah, that is crazy..." Nabiki muttered and whistled loudly, getting everyone's attention. "Hey, Kasumi's going to have breakfast soon, so why don't you war machines go get washed up for it, okay?"

Nove twitched slightly and looked at Ranma, who was holding her by her foot. "Did she insult us?"

"Nah, it was mostly to me and Genma." Ranma chuckled at her as he put her down. "But, she is right, we should get ready for breakfast." Yawning lightly, he walked into the house, before pulling off his shirt and tossing it to Sette, who had been wearing just a white t-shirt for practice, and since it was soaked, it was now completely transparent. "Told you to wear darker clothing." Ranma chuckled as he slipped up to his bedroom, pausing along the way as he saw Ryoga at the top of the stairs, blood dripping from his nose. "And just what did you see?" He asked rhetorically before shrugging it off. He'd find out sooner or later.

(---)

After breakfast, Nove stretched as she sat in front of the television. There wasn't anything that she needed to do and she felt like being a bit lazy. Well, that and Wendi wasn't around to bother her, saying something about checking out something that had caught her eye the other day.

"Nove." Kasumi's voice was heard, causing the short redhead to turn to the brunette. "You got a package."

"Huh?" Nove blinked a few times. She wasn't expecting anything... "Where's it from?" She asked as she got up and went to the table to see a small brown box.

"I don't know." Kasumi shook her head as she held up the box. "But there's a hole in the bottom."

Frowning, Nove picked up the box and shook it. "Nothing inside." She looked at the address label, she could only blink in confusion as it was addressed to her, but had no return address on it.. "Someone's idea of a joke?" She shrugged and tossed the box towards the open garbage can in the corner. "Well, it wasn't a funny one." She grumbled. At least she could have a laugh if the thing had a pie or something inside to make a mess of her face. "Eh, I think I'm going to go blading."

"Okay." Kasumi smiled at her. "Oh, if you see Sein, tell her that I was going to go shopping this afternoon. She wanted to go with me today."

"Sure." Nove nodded and called up her blades before taking off from the house. Unseen to her, two beady little black eyes were watching from the nearby bushes as Nove took off.

---

Tre looked at her opponent, he was skilled, he was crafty, he was...

"King me."

Totally dominating her at checkers.

"How'd you get so good at this game?" Tre asked as she kinged another one of Ranma's pieces. Heck, looking at the board, she only had three pieces left.

Shrugging, Ranma smirked at her. "Lots of time to practice."

"And what's the point of checkers anyway?" Tre asked as she moved another piece, only to grimace as that allowed Ranma to take the last three of her pieces. "...You win again."

"Look, Tre, it's all about perception, reading the field and predicting the best move that you can make with what you have." Ranma shook his head. "When dealing with a superior opponent, sometimes it's best to back up a bit and let them come to you." He moved the game a turn and moved a different piece on the board.

Tre blinked, heavily. "That..."

"Makes it a lot different, doesn't it?" Ranma smirked at her as he moved one of his pieces on the board. "It's interesting what you can learn from board games, actually. Checkers and especially chess can be likened to battle and managing resources. And sometimes, you don't need to have the best piece or pieces on the board to win," here he took another one of her pieces with a king, "but it certainly helps."

"It also helps not to leave a powerful piece in a strategically vulnerable point." Tre commented as she managed to take his kinged piece

"Exactly." Ranma nodded at her as the two continued to play the game. Surprisingly, Tre managed to actually get her final piece kinged before she finally lost the game. "See?"

"Yeah." She nodded and smiled softly, that had been a lot of fun. "So, why play these games with me anyway?" She asked, brushing her hair out of her face as the wind in the park picked up gently.

Ranma picked up a checker piece and rolled the checker from between his fingers back and forth on his right hand. "In the original timeline, of your world, you fought against Fate twice, both times having Sette to help you as you two were a pretty close match in power and close-combat skill. However, neither of you were anywhere near as experienced or skilled in magic as she was, and the two of you weren't that flexible with your thinking." He raised an eyebrow at her, smirking. "Power means a lot in a fight, that's true, but if you only have raw power and can't do much with it, what good does it do you when you go against someone who does know how to use their power skillfully? Hmm?"

"That someone would be you, huh?"

"Actually, I was talking about a perverted old frog that I met while hanging out with Anakin a few times." He shook his head and rubbed the top of his head. Yoda could sure hit hard when he wanted to.

Tre blinked and nodded, before leaning close. "So... I was wondering, that day you took us all shopping, what did Otto want to talk to you about?"

Ranma chuckled softly. "It seems that our dear Otto has a bit of a crush on Nabiki." Seeing the look on Tre's face, Ranma couldn't help but laugh softly. "Yeah, shocked me too. I'd do something about it but..."

"But?" Tre blinked, wondering why he wouldn't help Otto out. That didn't seem like him. Hell, now that she knew, she wanted to help out.

"Something major's going to happen soon. Just can't recall the exact details." Ranma shrugged at her. His loops were far more forgiving in terms of following them than most of the other loops, it was why he could get away without following the timeline as direct as some loopers did.

"You're putting it off because of that?" Tre asked as Ranma nodded to her.

"Yeah, whenever something major happens, things explode around here. Let things settle down first then I'll take care of it." He chuckled softly, before blinking as Tre frowned at him before getting onto the table, leaning forward and kissing him on the lips softly.

"I'll hold you to that." Tre smirked as she pulled back and got off the table.

Ranma chuckled as he got up from the table. "You do that." He couldn't shake off a nagging feeling that something was supposed to happen, but why couldn't he remember it. "Hmm..." Idly he raised his hand up and caught a staff that was aimed at at his neck. Turning his head, Ranma's eyes lit up. "AH! NOW I remember! How ya doing, Cologne?"

Looking at the stick, Tre followed it from the tip in Ranma's hand to the gnarled end where there was... "A shriveled up prune?" She couldn't help herself, the person on the end of it was only a foot, maybe two feet, tall, had long white hair, wearing small green robes that still looked large on her somehow, her skin somehow made her look even older, almost as if she was some sort of goblin or something that shouldn't exist.

Ranma chuckled softly. "I honestly thought she was a ghoul the first time I saw her."

Cologne narrowed her eyes at the two, however, she was surprised, a lot. First of all, she really couldn't feel anything from either of them at first glance. However, she knew better than to just use her senses to scan the surface. Getting closer however, revealed a lot to her and nothing at all. The female had pretty impressive magical reserves, higher than she had seen in a long time, but the male... Dear ancestors! It was like a god, a real god, had decided to grace this world with his presence. There was Ki, magic and lots of other energies that she didn't recognize that flowed through his body. "You're quite good."

"Better than you think." Ranma chuckled and let go of the staff. "So what brings a mighty Amazon warrior to Japan to attack someone like myself out of the blue?"

Narrowing her eyes, Cologne smirked at him. "Oh, just wondering how the outside world was doing since the last time I was running around, helping my granddaughter with a small problem and wondering just why an outsider male who I never saw would know me by name."

"I see..." Ranma said softly to her.

"That small problem wouldn't happen to be trying to kill my younger sisters, would it?" Tre asked, narrowing her eyes at Cologne and tensed up.

"I'm sorry to say that it is Amazon Law and she..." Cologne jumped back as Tre punched at her, shattering the ground where she was. "My, my, such a temper."

Ranma sighed at the exchange, why did he know this was going to happen?

Snarling at the overly calm Amazon, Tre rushed forward with her speed and struck out at Cologne, who somehow avoided it. "How?"

"So fast." Cologne commented casually as she jumped away. "But so predictable and..." Her eyes widened as she found herself suspended in midair, not moving at all. Thankfully her opponent wasn't moving either.

"Okay, you two. You wanna fight, fine, but not in the park. Normal people need to use this place." Ranma shook his head. Force hold was so much fun to stop disputes when needed. "But, Cologne, before you and Tre decide to reduce a construction zone to rubble, you might want to listen to me."

Looking at the cold fury in his eyes, Cologne could only nod slightly. It wasn't often she was scared, but between the cold fury in his eyes and the sheer promise of pain in the woman's eyes... Cologne honestly didn't like her chances. Especially if the man let the tall female go. "Very well."

---

A few hours later a mollified Cologne could only watch as Ranma and Tre walked out of the park side by side. Sighing, she jumped to the trees, she had a lot to think about.

---

"I still say you should have let me hurt her." Tre grumbled as Ranma shook his head at her.

"She's not the one that's the problem. She may be a bit stubborn, but she's willing to listen if you give her a reason. Shampoo is the one that will be a problem for Nove."

Tre narrowed her eyes. "I'm allowed to hurt her?"

"If she keeps trying to kill Nove, I won't stop you. Just don't kill her. She won't learn otherwise."

"Fine." Tre nodded, she could live with that. Besides, she really wanted to hurt someone for trying to hurt her sisters.

---

While Ranma and Tre were at the park, the other girls were out doing things of their own, however some of them were either looking for trouble or just something to keep from being bored.

"Hey, Dieci, wanna do something silly and fun?" Cinque asked her taller sister.

"Sure, why not?" Dieci nodded at her as the two left the Tendo house.

Later on...

Most people wouldn't think twice about two girls walking down the street, even if one of them had an eye-patch and a trench coat on and the other one was wearing brown pants and a white shirt that clung to her body, showing that she had a fairly curvy figure.

More than one man and boy on the street walked into a pole as they stopped to stare at the duo, or more specifically, Dieci, who was holding onto something in her hand. It wasn't a major eye-catcher, considering the way that people were openly ogling her rear or chest as she walked by. Not that she noticed, since she was more concerned with what was going to happen soon.

Looking at Cinque, Dieci wondered just what her shorter sister was planning. "So..." She had a bottle of coke in her hand as she and Cinque walked into a small construction area.

Cinque held up a pipe and smiled at her. "Come on, aren't you curious?"

"Well, yeah, but..." Dieci put the bottle down. "I thought it only worked on metal?"

Shrugging, the short, one-eyed girl could only silently open the bottle and tape the pipe to the top. "Well, we never know until we try, right?"

"Will this even work?" Dieci asked as she pulled out a roll of mentos from her pocket.

"I saw it on TV, so I'm curious." Cinque admitted as she was handed one of the mentos and handed it back to Dieci, who lifted it up and dropped it down the pipe.

As the mentos hit the soda and reacted violently, Cinque snapped her fingers, before her eye widened as not only did the coke shoot straight up but the bottle exploded violently, causing the two of them to get soaked in soda.

Calmly shaking her arms as the soda dripped off of her body, Dieci sighed softly. "Well, that was a fun experiment."

Wiping the soda off of her face, Cinque nodded. "Not doing that again." Oh well, that was kind of fun none-the-less.

She amended her thought a moment later as she and Dieci were suddenly soaked by the soda that had gone up and decided to finally obey the law of gravity and come crashing down on top of them.

---

Yawning slightly as she looked over the various folders, Uno sighed. Who knew that getting this in order was so boring? Well, it wasn't boring until after she had everything in order. Now she had very little to do at that moment. There was that boy with the wooden stick that was dragged in earlier with various burns and bruises. She stopped listening to him when he went off about a goddess with pink hair. The only person she knew with pink hair was Sette. Well, there was that one knight of Hayate's that had pink hair, but Uno never interacted with Signum, so she barely knew anything about her.

"Why don't you call it a day?" Tofu asked her as he walked into the room.

"You sure?" Uno asked, both wanting to get out of there and not wanting to leave without making sure everything was done due to a weird sense of professionalism she had.

Tofu smiled softly and nodded. "Go on." He liked the purple haired woman, very calm, professional and generally had a good attitude when she was here.

"Thank you." Uno said as she quickly finished up, clocked out and left, sighing in relief as the day was still fairly early, she could actually enjoy it.

"Un-nee?" She blinked and turned around, smiling as she saw Sein walk up to her. "What are you doing out?"

"The good doctor gave me the rest of the day off." Uno said softly as she looked at the shorter girl wearing green pants and light blue shirt. "What about you?"

Sein shrugged as she and Uno walked down the street. "Was kind of bored, Wendi went off somewhere, Cinque took Dieci out to do something and Nove went rollerblading. Sette and Otto like that motorcycle and Deed's playing with her new friend."

Uno would have asked about Tre, but figured that the other cyborg was either in a fight somewhere, training or hanging out with Ranma. Probably all three. Tre might have liked him in the bedroom, but she seemed to prefer those kind of activities happening in private. Hell, Ranma had to make sure Tre got good and relaxed before she could even join in on the fun with those two.

She smirked to herself. Honestly, Uno had never pegged Tre as the type to get nervous about having sex when others were watching, but it was kind of amusing and cute to see the normally stoic and serious member of her family get flustered and embarrassed. It was even more cute and amusing when Tre was naked and trying to cover herself up with just her arms.

"What are you thinking of, Un-nee?" Sein asked, getting a look from her taller and older sister, who shook her head.

"Nothing much, really." As cute and amusing as she found Tre to be at times, it was better to not tease the other woman when she wasn't around. Plus there were just some things that you didn't talk about in the company of other people.

Unless they were privy to details. Sein wasn't.

"Hey, Un-nee..." Sein trailed off as they continued to walk. "You know the two old guys that live at that house?"

"Soun and Genma?" Uno asked with a raised eyebrow, getting a nod from the shorter girl. "What about them?"

"They were asking me what combat cyborgs were."

Uno blinked and frowned softly. "Wonder why..."

"No clue." Sein shrugged. "But, I have to say... I like this world." When Uno didn't do anything but look at her with a slightly confused expression, Sein smiled at her. "It's a weird place, but it's a lot of fun here." Not to mention that it was just so quiet here, when there wasn't sparring going on.

"It is." Uno nodded and smiled softly. "So what are you going to do when it gets weirder?"

"Enjoy the fun and hope I don't get too caught up in it." The shorter girl stopped suddenly as the two heard a roaring engine. The two turned to see Otto drive up, Sette clinging to her back as the two enjoyed the feel of the wind and the speed of the motorcycle.

Uno shook her head as the two slowed down and stopped in front of them. "My, my. It seems that our dear baby sister Sette has been corrupted by a short biker punk. What should we do?"

"Girls like the bad boys." Otto said in a faux-deep voice as she lowered her sunglasses.

"Even if they're girls." Sette nodded and hugged Otto from behind, pressing her large breasts against Otto's back tightly, snuggling the shorter girl.

The situation was serious for another second before Sein couldn't help it and started giggling, causing Uno to smile while Sette and Otto both started to practically roar in laughter as Sette let go of her shorter sister.

"So," Uno said between chuckles, "are you two going around making people confuse you two for people dating?"

"Nah." Otto shook her head. "The bike's just a lot of fun. What about you two?"

"Got off early and bumped into Sein." Uno shrugged at the question. "Got the whole day to do nothing."

"Want to go see a movie?" Sette asked, getting blinks from her sisters. "I heard that it was a good thing to do when there was nothing else to do."

"Have any of us ever... Gone to a movie?" Sein asked, scratching her head.

The other three shook their heads as they realized that. None of them had ever gone to a movie before.

A moment later Otto found that her bike had a hidden function as two passenger side carts, one on each side, seemed to come out of hidden compartments as metal seemed to unfold and spread apart, allowing Uno and Sein to get inside easily.

Sein looked over the side and blinked. "Huh, no wheels..." It worried her a little bit, until it was obvious that it was actually hovering off the ground.

As the four drove down the road, Uno and Sein both could see the appeal of the bike. It was loud, fast and a lot of fun.

---

Meanwhile...

Genma looked at Soun as the two played Shogi, he was partially watching Soun in case his friend decided to cheat, but his mind wasn't completely on the game. "What do you think about what that girl said?"

"About cyborgs?" Soun shook his head. "She's a bit delusional, I think, but I can't explain how she can walk through walls like that."

"But... What is a cyborg, exactly?" Genma frowned, he had been more-or-less cut off from humanity for the past ten years, so he had missed a lot.

"Ah..." Soun frowned, he knew this... His eyes lit up. "Ah, there's that new Gaijin film that just got released over here, called "The Terminator". Apparently cyborgs are robots with human flesh over their bodies."

"Like Astro Boy?" Genma blinked as Soun nodded. "So they aren't exactly real people then..."

Shrugging, Soun nodded and mentally smirked as he rearranged a piece while his friend stared out into space. "It seems that way, but looking at them, you can't tell, so maybe they are cyborgs." Which was weird, he didn't think that the technology for such existed yet.

Frowning, Genma got up from the table and walked off, surprising Soun. "Saotome?"

"I need to have a... Talk with my son." Soun could hear the utter seriousness in his tone-of-voice as he spoke up. "If what that girl said was true then..."

"Indeed, Saotome, but wouldn't it be better to wait until he comes back. He seems to care about those girls." Soun didn't mind the thought of leaving and looking for his friend's son, but Nerima was a big place after all, he could be anywhere. "Besides, no one can resist Kasumi's cooking." He laughed, getting Genma to relax and nod.

"Indeed, Tendo." Genma smirked and walked back to the table and sat down, picking up the game again. If those girls really were just machines with human flesh over them, he needed to have a serious talk to his son.

Plus he had to wonder why he was at such a disadvantage. He should have had at least ten more pieces on the board.

(---)

"So this is a movie theatre, huh?" Sein asked as Otto finished locking up her bike so that no one would steal it. The building wasn't that large, well, not compared to some of them, being only two stories and the outside was made out of brick, but it still seemed rather nice.

"Seems that way." Uno said as she looked at the building while Sette was looking at the various posters that were on the outside of the building, at then up at the over-hang saying what movies were showing that day. "Anything good, Sette?" She asked as she got closer.

The pink haired cyborg turned back to Uno and shrugged. "We got two choices right now. Either Footloose or Terminator."

The four, now that Otto had caught up to them, looked back and forth, before shrugging. "Terminator." Really, who would want to watch a movie about dancing anyway?

"Four for Terminator, please?" Otto, being the closest to the ticket booth, walked up first and requested the tickets, the response she got wasn't one she expected.

"A fellow playah!" The man, well, teenager, she supposed, smiled brightly at her. He looked fairly normal, a bit taller than her, then again, nearly everyone was taller than she was, with blond hair on his head and wearing a uniform of some type, though Otto assumed that it was needed for working at this place.

"E..Excuse me?" Otto wasn't confused like this too often, it felt... Rather weird to her.

"I see you, hanging out with three lovely ladies like a true playah." The teen smiled at her. "The purple-haired and the pink-haired women, very fine. The smaller one's cute too." He winked at Otto and handed her four tickets.

"I think you got it..."

He winked and held a thumbs up to her. "Of course I got it! Don't worry, my fellow playah! This one's on the house, enjoy the movie."

"Ah..." Otto blinked, several times before wandering back to her sisters, who had started to walk into the building. Was she really _that_ boyish?

"You okay?" Sette asked Otto as the smaller girl looked incredibly confused at that moment.

"...I don't know, but for some reason, I think I should be both offended and pleased."

Sette could only blink a few times in confusion as the group gathered snacks, which was another thing they didn't really have any real idea about. In the end Otto had a huge tub of popcorn while Sette had several drinks of different types and Sein and Uno both had various boxed candy while they made their way to the back where the movie was going to be showing. "Huh, only two rooms." Well, it made the choice easier as the four made their way into the room that was showing Terminator and found four seats next to each other that were open.

The four were just hoping that the movie was going to be good.

As the movie went on, Uno had to admit, it was pretty good. Though, privately, she disagreed with the explanation of what a cyborg was that the movie gave. The love making scene was rather short and not all that interesting to her, but then again, she had a real lover, so she didn't have to imagine what it was like.

Sette was trying to figure out if she could take a shotgun blast like the Terminator had without any shields to absorb the impact and took a sip of her drink. She quickly decided that she rather liked carbonated sugar water. The taffy was really good too.

Otto, as she watched the movie, was twitching. If the movie was any indication, it was no _wonder_ that Midchilan society didn't like the thought of cyborgs running around. After all, she and her sisters hadn't acted too differently in the past from the Terminator on the movie was doing.

Sein, on the other hand, was rather upset. The explanations were totally off on what a cyborg was, anyone with a keen enough eye could tell when they used some sort of dummy and the real actor. None of that really bothered her. It was the way that the movie treated cyborgs, like soul-less, emotion-less killing machines. She had a soul! She had emotions! Why the heck could they get away with such lies like this?! She was going to... "Woah!" Her eyes widened, okay, the exploding semi truck was rather awesome.

The next scene had Otto and Sein practically clinging to each other, their eyes wide, as the Terminator's true form walked out of the fire, the outer flesh completely burned away. Sette had stopped eating snacks and was wondering why she wanted her "dad' there to cling to, still, she couldn't help but keep watching. As for Uno?

She was rather glad that she hadn't tried something like what the Terminator was doing. Having her flesh burned off and then her body exploded wasn't something that she wanted to experience, ever.

When the movie was over, most people left chatting, commenting and discussing what they had seen. The four cyborgs were rather subdued, though Sein really wanted to either cry or make something explode, or both.

Uno was just glad that they hadn't brought Wendi or Nove, the building would be rubble if they had.

"Should we just go home?" Otto asked, getting nods from her sisters.

---

Later that day, Ranma, the Tendos, and the cyborgs found themselves eating at the table. "So, what did everyone do today?" Ranma asked casually as he ate.

"It was weird." Nove muttered, rubbing the back of her neck. "For some reason, when I was out skating, I felt like something was stalking me, but all I saw was a small cat."

Ranma shook his head, well, at least Nove hadn't said she had gotten attacked, so he really wasn't going to bother with it.

"Went to a movie today." Sette looked at Ranma and pouted. "Are all cyborgs on this world like what the Terminator is?"

Nabiki suddenly started laughing hard while Ranma groaned. The pout was rather cute on a normal girl, on someone Sette's size, it looked rather adorable for some reason. It probably had something to do with how innocent she really was, despite being someone who was literally only made for fighting.

"Well..." Ranma was about to say something when someone was heard clearing their throat, turning, he raised an eyebrow at Genma. "What?"

"Son, I need to talk with you."

"Fine." Ranma rolled his eyes and got up with a sigh.

Watching them leave to the dojo, Nabiki frowned lightly, what was going through Genma's head right now?

Unnoticed by anyone, mostly because she phased through the floor and into the ground, Sein discretely followed the pair. Maybe she was nosy, maybe she should just leave them to themselves...

But she was curious, and Genma just rubbed her the wrong way for some reason.

In the dojo, Ranma raised an eyebrow as he looked at Soun standing against the far wall. "So, talk." He turned to Genma as the latter closed the door behind him. Ranma had dealt with Genma for so long that he could just imagine what he was going to say next.

"So, what are they?" Ranma blinked as he heard that, he hadn't expected that exactly. "Those girls, the short one with blue hair said that they were cyborgs." Honestly, Genma looked more confused and curious than anything else. It was... Weird.

"Yeah, they're cyborgs, what about it?" Ranma asked as he frowned lightly.

Unseen to them, Sein popped her head out from the floor, curiously watching the events unfold.

"So... _What_ are cyborgs?" Never let it be said Genma knew much about science or much of anything outside of martial arts.

Rolling his eyes, Ranma shook his head. "A cyborg is a person who has mechanical enhancements on their body from when they were really young. Sometimes it's done when they're older, but it's generally safer to do it when they're just babies."

"So they're like a car then?" Genma asked, trying to make sure that he understood it. "Just things that you can use as you want?"

From her position in the floor, Sein winced and wilted, was that all she and her sisters really were? Just things that no one really cared for and threw away when their use was over?

"Idiot!" Ranma yelled at Genma as he slammed his oaf of a father into the ground. "They were born just like any other person! It's not their fault that someone decided that they would be good test subjects to turn into cyborgs! They're people just like you or me. They have abilities that we don't because of it, but that's all!" There were other things, but Ranma didn't feel like explaining them. "They can live and die like anyone else and even have children, you idiot! If they were just machines, they couldn't do that. They're people!" Sein, watching this, couldn't help but stare wide-eyed. Soun as well, but for slightly different reasons.

Grimacing from the floor, Genma nodded. "Got it, people that have weird powers, got it."

Ranma snorted and let go of Genma, he really didn't care anymore. "Whatever." He took a step to the door when Genma told him to wait. Turning, he raised an eyebrow as Genma stood up. "What? Going to tell me something about how I shouldn't be doing anything with them?"

"Actually, I don't really care." Ranma blinked, staring stupidly at him. "You're young, I did a lot of the same thing when I was your age." Mentally, Ranma laughed at that, if only Genma knew. "Just promise me that you won't let your martial arts slack or your promise to marry a Tendo."

Ranma snorted and turned around, even as Sein slipped back under the floor. "Whatever." As he walked out of the dojo, Ranma had been surprised how easy that had been. Then again, there wasn't a Tendo chosen this time to be his fiance, at least not now. "Like I said..." He stopped at the door and turned to look at the two. "I'll choose in eighteen months from the day I got here." Really, it was kind of cruel, but unless the loops ended this time, highly unlikely, they'd just reset when he was going to have to make a decision.

Watching Ranma leave, Soun frowned and looked at Genma. "Just what are you thinking, Saotome? Letting him sleep with those two..." He trailed off, not really sure how to describe the girls, Ranma had gone off when Genma had just asked if the girls were just machines, he hated to really get the receiving end of that anger.

"Don't worry, Tendo." Genma smirked at him. "My boy might be a bit rebellious now, but he's a teenager. I raised him to follow the code of honor, he'll come around soon enough and choose one of your daughters. After all, those other two aren't suitable to marry, he'd lose a lot of face if he tried that."

"But what if he doesn't see it that way and keeps them around?"

Genma shrugged off Soun's worry. "At best, they'd be his mistresses... Nothing more than glorified servants with some extra benefits." Chuckling, Genma couldn't believe his luck, this would work out better for him in the long run anyway. "If anything, it'll just mean that he's a better lover for your daughters when he does settle down."

"Good point, Saotome, good point."

(---)

Outside, Ranma twitched and frowned, before sighing. Idiots would be idiots. As he walked back to the dining area, he blinked as Sein met him half-way into the hallway. "Sein?" She looked rather confused, worried and... Hopeful?

"Do you mean what you said in there? About us being our own people?"

"Spying, huh?" Ranma chuckled softly before sighing and nodding. "Yeah, I did. You aren't just things to use and throw away if something goes wrong. You're people."

"But..."

Ranma shook his head and put a hand on her shoulder. "Before I told you girls to start pranking everyone on Midchilda, I was Jail Scagiletti. As kind as he was to all of you, he did treat you like things instead of real people. To me, you're a girl who just had some bad luck when she was little and came out of it pretty well."

Sein blinked, before smiling and hugging him tightly. "Thank you."

Ranma blinked, before smiling softly and hugging her back gently. "No problem." He ran a hand through her hair as he patted her back with his other hand. "Come on, let's go get some food before your sisters eat it all up."

Sein giggled and let go. "Sure."

Looking up as Ranma came back in, Nabiki raised an eyebrow at Sein. "Where'd you go?"

"Uh... The bathroom?" Sein sweat-dropped as Nabiki rolled her eyes at her.

Rubbing the back of her neck, Wendi looked at Ranma nervously. "Um..." When all attention got focused to her, she cleared her throat. "I was out today and... Let's just say one thing led to another and..." She started chuckling nervously. "It's a funny story really, but in the end, I got challenged to martial arts surfing at the beach in three days."

Ranma raised an eyebrow at her, looked at the calendar, before shrugging. "Alright, you girls know what this means?"

"Beach trip?" Nabiki asked with a smirk.

"Yep, beach trip." Ranma chuckled as the whole house started to get excited at the thought.

"YAY!"

As Uno got up from the table, Nove looked at Wendi. "So, how did it happen?"

"Well..." Wendi grinned and rubbed the back of her head. "It's kinda funny, I was hearing how these guys were so good at surfing and it got my attention, they said that there was a surfing competition in three days, so I asked if anyone could join. They said fine, but it's martial arts surfing."

Shaking her head and smirking, the shorter redhead couldn't help but chuckle, that was kind of funny.

Ranma looked at Uno and shook his head after hearing what she said. "Listen, he'll let you go, just tell him you're going with your sisters to the beach, okay? I know Tofu, he'll be fine for a week." Hell, most loops the man had no help at all, so it wasn't a big deal that he lost help for a week.

Outside, a small creature watched what was going on before nodding and bounding away. Her great-grandmother would want to know of this.


	5. Beach Numbers

Time Loops

Numbers in Nerima 4

Beach Numbers

Disclaimer: If I owned any of this, I'd be impressed with my non-existent drawing talent.

* * *

Looking out at the beach, Cinque, dressed in a light blue one-piece, couldn't help but smile softly as she sat up from the lounging chair. They had just arrived at the beach a few hours ago and Ranma had declared that they should have some fun while he and Wendi got a surf board. Wendi had argued that since she had one, why would she need another?

It had been amusing to see Ranma grab her board, stuff it up a sleeve and go "what board?". Considering that he had been wearing a tank top at the time made it all the more amusing.

"Cinque-nee!" One thing didn't change though, Cinque realized amusingly, was Sein being loud and fun-loving. Oh well... Turning, Cinque raised an eyebrow as she saw Sein in a blue-green bikini, Deed in a black and orange one-piece behind her and getting a lot of attention and...

"Otto?" She couldn't believe it. Otto was wearing black _male_ swim-trunks and a white t-shirt. "What the heck?"

The boyish girl rubbed the back of her head nervously. "Um... I just kinda figured since I don't really have any sort of breasts that I could go without looking like a girl."

Cinque shook her head and laughed softly. "You do know what happens when you wear a white shirt, right?" It could be amusing to see if Otto got embarrassed by it.

Her sister could only shrug at that. "Like I said, it's not like I have much of a chest, even if my shirt gets soaked it's not like anyone's going to be able to tell unless they grope me."

Wincing slightly, Cinque got up and walked over to Otto and patted her on the shoulder. "Hey, it's okay, let's just have fun."

"Ohohohohohoho!" Cinque suddenly froze as she felt Deed pick her up. "Indeed! We should have a LOT of fun! BANZAI!"

Watching Deed basically kidnap Cinque and rush to the water, Otto on their heels, before they jumped in, Sette looked at Tre in confusion. "Is that normal?"

"I'm beginning to think that this world just makes everyone in it act completely crazy." Tre smirked softly as she stood there in a dark blue bikini. She didn't truly like the design, as it didn't completely cover her rear-end, but she had to admit, the way that people would look at her was rather satisfying for some odd reason.

Sette nodded, she had a blue headband on her forehead and a blue-green bikini on her body, before she bent down and picked up the volleyball that was by her feet. "So... Know how to play this game?" She asked as she and Tre went over to the set-up net on the beach where Nove and Dieci were waiting for them.

"Not a clue."

"I saw some people playing earlier." Dieci, dressed in a black, backless one-piece, spoke up as they got closer. "We're supposed to keep the ball bouncing in the air, not let it touch the ground and try to get it to hit the ground on the other side of the net."

Nove, in a red bikini top and short-shorts, nodded, then frowned. "HEY!" She pointed at Tre and Sette, both of whom blinked at her. "You two can fly, this won't be fair!"

"Um, we'll stay on the ground?" Tre muttered, blinking as Sein came out of nowhere and stole the ball from Sette before running through the net, literally. "Well, that's one good thing, but now it's three on two..."

"And you two are the strongest, what's the big deal?" Dieci said with a wink and smirk at them.

Tre narrowed her eyes at her sisters. "It's on."

Sein could only giggle and grin, it was nice seeing everyone getting along.

(---)

"Why do we put up with them?" The question came out of the blue and Nabiki, laying on her front, turned her head away from the volleyball game and looked at her sister, who was dressed in a one-piece bathing suit, her arms were crossed over her chest and she looked a bit upset.

"You mean besides the fact that they're rather amusing?" Nabiki raised an eyebrow and turned away from Akane. "Mostly because none of them have anywhere else to go and Ranma did build them all separate rooms for their own purposes."

"Bunch of perverted..." Akane grumbled and sighed as she sat down on an open lawn chair. "Why aren't you..."

"Taking advantage of this?" Nabiki asked, shrugging. "I'd rather not get Ranma mad at me. He's rather fond of those girls."

"I'm rather fond of him myself." Uno said as she, in a fairly modest swimsuit, said while reading a book and looking through her sunglasses. "I'm honestly surprised that Tofu did let me have today off though."

Nabiki smirked softly, oh, she knew the reason, it was rather obvious that Tofu liked the help, since he often times never had much of any, other than a panda and a sometimes cat, assistance, so it was most likely appreciated. Plus there was the whole fact that she was actually competent. Well, at least more than a Chinese girl who could barely speak Japanese and a panda who couldn't speak over the phone.

Akane looked at Uno and frowned lightly. It was true that the woman was less... Grating than some of her sisters, but something about her just felt off. She just couldn't put her finger on it. "So, where's your boyfriend?" Akane asked Uno, who actually blushed somewhat.

"I'd like to think of him like that, but he's not my boyfriend." The taller woman chuckled nervously.

Nabiki snapped her head at Akane, her eyes wide. "You did _not_ just ask if someone was Ranma's girlfriend, did you?" There was a nervous bead of sweat going down her face at that moment. The last thing they needed was a bunch of hammers to slam down on their heads because she pissed off Skuld.

Akane and Uno could only blink at her in confusion.

Meanwhile out in the water, Ranma, dressed in blue swim trunks and hit white tank top, sat on his board as he and Wendi, dressed in a red skin-tight body suit, paddled out fairly far into the water. "So... What do you know about how you're supposed to fight?"

Wendi scratched her head and grinned lightly. "Well, from what I was told, you're supposed to surf a giant wave while getting close to your opponent, knocking them off their board and keeping them from getting back on by the time you get to the shore."

Ranma chuckled, he had never had to go through this, so it was new to him, even. It was rather fun! "Interesting... Any rules?"

Wendi shrugged. "Just have to be on your board by the time you get to the shore. If you don't, then you both have to go back out and do it again, and again, and again..."

"I get it." Ranma laughed at her lightly. "So, what do you know about this guy?"

"Not much, he's big though and he's apparently the best at this." Wendi gulped at the smirk on Ranma's face.

"Well then, how about we start practicing, hmm?" Though to be honest, Ranma had no real idea how he was supposed to help Wendi with this, oh well, it could be fun.

(---)

"Got it!" Tre yelled as she jumped up and spiked the volleyball down, past her shorter sisters incredibly fast and missing the boundaries completely.

"Too much." Sette said casually, causing Tre to groan.

"I know, I know." She sighed as Nove ran off to get the ball. Tre, though, frowned as she saw Nove come across the ball... or rather, the two people next to the ball.

Sette could only blink as she saw a purple haired girl and a small... thing with a fairly tall staff next to her go up to Nove. "Who are they?" She asked as she moved a strand of long pink hair out of the way of her eyes.

"Trouble." Tre muttered and started moving in that direction. She really didn't like the thought of dealing with them right now.

Watching this unfold, Sein, Sette and Dieci looked at each other, shrugged and followed Tre.

"What do you want?" Nove frowned at Shampoo and looked at her hands, they didn't have anything in them, but for some reason Nove wasn't convinced that she wasn't dangerous.

"You, I challenge!" She yelled and pointed at Nove, who could only blink in confusion.

"Huh?"

"I think she's challenging you..." Sein spoke up helpfully.

"I kind of figured..." Nove muttered. That wasn't what she wanted to know. "Why?"

Shampoo shrugged and smirked evilly at Nove. Her grandmother had said she couldn't kill or cripple her opponent, normally that made no sense, but since she had met that male that had taken it on himself to protect the no good outsider female... Well, there were always ways around what she was told.

Nove's eyes widened as she jumped back from a kick in the sand from her opponent, who had pulled out some steel balls on sticks and was smirking at her. "What the hell?"

"You I challenge, unless you is coward." Shampoo hated the fact that she could barely be understood in Japanese, but she found the language silly anyway.

"What the hell?!" Tre yelled as she narrowed her eyes at Shampoo and lunged at her, only to find that her arm was suddenly twisted, causing her body to flip onto the sandy beach.

"Now, now. It was a legitimate challenge." The older woman's voice spoke up gravelly. "I'm not sure that it would reflect well on the man that's watching over you." Cologne cracked a small smirk at the hesitation that appeared on the face of the purple haired woman. "Of course, there's nothing stopping me from joining in the fight if I wanted to..." She trailed off as she avoided a kick from Tre. "My, my. Your temper really does cause problems for you, doesn't it?"

"Only when someone's trying to hurt my family." Tre growled at the shorter woman, who just smirked openly at her.

Cologne spared a glance at Shampoo and mentally frowned. The girl she was fighting wasn't _that_ skilled, but she was still able to avoid Shampoo's attacks fairly well, not that any of her attacks were getting through. "Hmm... Your sister doesn't seem to be doing too well. After all, things always can happen in a fight that you just can't..." Cologne jumped up and grimaced as Tre, using momentum from her punch into the ground, pushed herself straight up in to the air. The old Amazon raised an eyebrow as she looked at Tre's upside-down face. "Is that frown always stuck on your face?"

"Must you always talk?" Tre growled as she lashed out with a strong punch at Cologne's small body, who seemed to just flow around it before jumping away towards the water.

"Not always." She said as she stood on the water. "But you make it so easy." Midair combat wasn't her strong point, but Cologne could improvise when she needed to.

(---)

"What's going on?" Nabiki asked Dieci, who could only scratch her head in confusion.

"I'm not sure. Those two showed up, the purple-haired girl said something about challenging Nove and started attacking, then Tre attacked the small monkey and they started fighting."

She was going to say something when Genma and Soun came out of nowhere to start commenting on how Cologne, being a master of the martial arts could stand on the smallest of twigs in the water and stay afloat with ease. "Where the hell were you two?" She asked, before noticing the ice cream on Genma's face, the half-eaten cone in Soun's hand and, now that she took the time to really pay attention, the tray in Kasumi's hands that had a bunch of different cones in it. "Is that chocolate?" She asked, before plucking one of the cones from the tray and starting to eat.

"Should we do something?" Sette asked, torn between wanting to help Tre and wanting to stay out of it, since it seemed like something bad would happen to her "father" if she interfered.

Nabiki shrugged and held up another cone for Sette. "Vanilla?"

"Nabiki!" Akane growled, causing her sister to sigh.

"Look, Akane, unless something bad happens or one of the fighters doesn't stop, I'm not getting in there."

Akane was about to say something when someone was heard clearing their throat and glaring at the group. "Uh..."

"Hey, Ranma." Nabiki said casually. "Kasumi got us ice-cream, want some?" She could only look on slightly amused at the narrowed eyes.

"Where'd you two come from?" Genma asked as he looked at Wendi, who was looking on nervously, and Ranma, who was looking at the two fights going on at that moment.

*Flashback...*

Ranma shook his head as he sent Wendi crashing into the water again. "Oh please, the ice wasn't that bad..."

Wendi shot up from the water and wiped her hair from her eyes. "Says you."

Chuckling, he nodded at her, before narrowing his eyes. "Wendi..."

"Hmm?" She asked as she crawled back onto her board. "What?"

"Can you feel that?"

"What?" She blinked as he sighed.

"You really can't sense an increase in magic and chi?" It was barely noticeable, but there was a fluctuation that he just couldn't ignore.

"Uh..." She scratched the back of her head. "No, not really. Why?"

"Remind me to teach you how to sense and feel out various kinds of energy." Ranma muttered as he turned to shore. "For now, follow me."

Wendi nodded, wondering what he meant by that.

*End Flashback...*

"And we ended up here, so, why are Nove and Tre fighting?"

Sein looked at Wendi and shrugged. "The purple haired girl challenged Nove and Tre started fighting the little monkey."

Sighing, Ranma could only look at the fights in slight annoyance. "Fine." If they got out of hand, there would be problems, but for now...

"Dad?" Otto asked as she, Cinque and Deed walked up to them. "What's going on? Umph!" She pulled the towel that was thrown at her face off.

"I don't care if you're going to try and trick people into thinking that you're a boy, Otto, but don't wear a white shirt."

"Since when are you one for female modesty?" Nabiki asked with a roll of her eyes. "You can't even tell that Otto's a girl unless you get close enough anyway." Seeing the glare that he was giving her, she raised her hands up in a defensive measure. "I'm just saying..." It was probably different, since Otto saw Ranma as her father and Ranma really didn't have much of a clue as to how to respond to that.

Otto didn't know why, but she felt her face flushing from the banter between Ranma and Nabiki.

(---)

Tre quickly discovered that, much to her displeasure, an opponent who had to look up just to see your shins was damnably hard to hit at all. Doubly so because she had an impressive amount of speed and agility to avoid her attacks, well, most of them, at least she had managed to kick the old woman out into the water. She wondered if the old bat could swim.

She twitched slightly as Cologne seemingly landed on the water, not breaking it as she held her staff in front of her, seemingly mocking her with the smug look on her face. How the hell the old... Thing could just stand there was anyone's guess. Her senses picked up something about a true master of martial arts was able to stand on even the smallest twig as if it was solid ground from Genma, but that couldn't be true.

She was proven right a moment later when a _shark_ raised its head out of the water and seemingly looked at her.

"Let's see how well you can float without the shark!" Tre smirked and in a blur was out in the ocean, her leg striking the head of the shark, sending it flying, as she did that, Cologne _moved_, her body leaping at Tre as her staff struck out at her foe's body. The tall cyborg's eyes widened and she cried out as she landed in the shallow water, grabbing at her butt, as it hurt the most, but various points on her legs and back throbbed in pain as well. Cologne landed right at the water's edge and smirked at her handiwork, before frowning as her staff broke into pieces.

Watching that, Ranma frowned, that attack really seemed to screw up Tre somehow. As he watched Tre sluggishly get up and channel, or rather, attempt to channel magic, he narrowed his eyes at that, not only was her magic sluggishly moving, but her body seemed to stiffen up and move, at least to his trained eye, extremely sluggishly.

"Tre-nee's in trouble!" Sein pointed out the obvious as it looked like her sister was starting to have real trouble.

"Full-body paralysis." Ranma commented. "It's supposed to hit several points along her body, but Tre was moving too fast for Cologne and her body's a bit tougher than a normal person's."

"Full-body paralysis?" Sette asked, frowning and materializing a boomerang on her right side. "Should we..?" She trailed off, blinking as Ranma shook his head and waved her and Cinque, who had pulled out a knife, down.

"Not right now. If it worked the way Cologne wanted it to, Tre wouldn't be moving right now." Plus he was curious as to what Tre could do if her body wasn't at full ability. Plus, he was kind of curious just why she could move with her muscles locking up like they were. 'Maybe it has something to do with her cybernetic implants?' He idly thought to himself as he watched.

"And the strike to her ass?" Nabiki asked sarcastically as she watched Tre and Cologne circle each other warily. Cologne wouldn't be so worried if her staff hadn't broken apart and Tre could probably easily win if her body and power wasn't screwed up like it was right now. Nabiki didn't have Ranma's ungodly senses for fighting, but after a few hundred loops, even she could figure things out.

"Additional humiliation if her muscles locked up completely." Ranma commented, shaking his head.

"Makes sense." The Tendo girl said as she calmly licked her ice-cream cone. Honestly, she didn't really care too much for any of the Numbers. The few times she had met them she had to fight against them. Sure, most of them turned out to be rather decent people in the end, but it was still hard for her to reconcile the mostly normal, if a bit psychotic, girls in front of her and the bunch of whacked-out psychopaths from Nanoha's universe. The interesting effects of having someone treat them all human and not make them do anything horrible, not to mention teaching them things, really did change people.

"Um, how does that "full-body paralysis" work?" Sein asked, blinking at him.

Ranma chuckled softly. "There are a lot of pressure points on the body. Hitting the right ones causes the muscles to tense and stiffen up tremendously, making it impossible to react properly. Hit enough and all your voluntary muscles lock up, making movement impossible for a few hours."

"Oh." Sein blinked a few times. "So why..."

"I'm not sure myself." Ranma muttered softly as he continued to watch.

(---)

Tre grimaced, she could feel her magic, but it was like someone had just put up a dam in her body and only a small trickle of her power was getting out.

"You should just give up." Cologne smirked at her. "You can't possibly win this fight as you are now."

Tre felt an eye twitch from that. It was weird, she could have sworn that this person was just purposely trying to piss her off. "I dunno, you don't have your walking stick anymore, maybe I should get you a wheelchair so you don't have to worry about busting a hip."

Cologne had to admit, that wasn't too bad. "Indeed my dear, but you're the one who's most likely going to break a hip at this rate." Suddenly she narrowed her eyes and frowned as she felt Shampoo's chi levels start wavering rather quickly. "Sadly, I do not think we have time for this, I'll have to finish this then."

Tre glared and shifted her stance as she could feel the old woman start to really unseal her power as the air around her started to get hazy and warped, even to her senses. _Ride Impulse is out... Guess I could try that..._ She didn't like the thought, but she'd rather hurt herself than lose this fight.

"MACH!"

(---)

His eyes widening, Ranma shook his head. "She's not seriously going to try that, is she?"

"IMPULSE!"

"Guess so." He muttered, before disappearing, a gust of wind kicking up and scattering dust all around everyone standing there watching.

"What the?" Genma asked, looking around, where was his son?

(---)

Tre could feel her body protesting what she was going to attempt to do, though on the bright side, she managed to get more of her magic to flow through her.

A moment before she could try anything, she felt a hand gripping her wrists, a pair of hands on her shoulders and a very upset pair of eyes looking her in the face, getting her to stop what she was doing, both startled and nervous.

Across from her, Cologne had to raise an eyebrow at this, she hadn't thought that he had a technique like her Cat's Hair, though those clones were far more solid.

"Dammit, Tre!" Ranma hissed from behind her softly, getting a shiver from the cyborg, not to mention that there was a troublesome tremor of worry in his voice. "You haven't even finished perfecting that move yet. You black out when you use it normally, your body's screwed up right now, were you trying to kill yourself?"

Wincing, Tre really could hear the worry that undercut the anger in his voice. Maybe it was because of the way that he only talked this way to her when he was trying to reassure her, or maybe it was because when she stopped to think about it, she really did see that move nearly, or completely, killing herself if she had tried it at that moment.

Ranma would have said more, but a sudden burst of power and a yellow flash of light caught his, Tre's, Cologne's and the rest of the group's attention as they looked down the beach as a spiraling golden path weaved its way into the sky.

"NOVE!" Wendi, Sein and Cinque called out, the three of them reacting faster than the others as they raced off, Cologne and the rest of the group right behind them a moment later.

Other than Ranma and Tre, who stayed behind as he held her body with his clones. "We'll talk about this later, Tre." He said as his clones disappeared. "There's always a place and time to do things in a fight. Right now, let's make sure that Nove's okay."

She nodded as he let her go and the two rushed off to make sure that no one was dead.

(---)

Nove grimaced as she rolled away from a kick downwards at her legs. "Hey, watch it."

"Shampoo show outsider why is bad for mess with Amazons." Both Nove and Shampoo winced at the mangling of the language.

"That was just bad."

"Shampoo agree." The two nodded, finally agreeing about something before Shampoo lashed out with a roundhouse kick at Nove's head, causing the shorter redhead to duck and kick up, only for Shampoo to move her body in such a way that she took the blow, but it lost a lot of momentum against her, since it only grazed her body.

Nove grimaced as she got her footing back, that blow just wasn't going to cut it and she knew it, mostly because the strike just wasn't that hard.

Shampoo smirked as she saw Nove rushing at her. Her opponent wasn't bad, no match for an Amazon to be sure, but she wasn't bad. Those yellowish eyes were weird, but Shampoo wasn't concerned about that. When Nove was close enough and tried kicking at her, she twisted around the strike and smashed Nove in the side with her bounbourii, causing the redhead to cry out as she tumbled on the sand.

Grimacing, Nove clutched her side and got to her knees as she saw Shampoo rushing in. "Try this..." She muttered as she got to the balls of her feet, her hands still on the ground. "Lock on! Nove Drive..." The short redhead pushed off with her feet in a sudden burst of speed that Shampoo wasn't prepared for, kicking her in the knees with her right leg, her left leg lashed up and hit Shampoo in the jaw, making her see stars for a moment and sending her up into the air. "SMASHER!" Placing her hands on the ground, Nove pushed up into the air and got above Shampoo, who was just clearing her head as Nove straddled her chest before the redhead hooked her arms under Shampoo's knees, practically curling her into a ball, before Nove threw her head back, causing the two to flip, end over end down into the sandy beach below, where Shampoo crashed onto her back, a giant cloud of sand was kicked up, covering the both of them.

Panting as the sand came crashing down, Nove looked at Shampoo, who had her eyes closed, before she sighed and let go of Shampoo's legs and got off the girl. She winced as she felt the pain in her knees and side act up. Her knees were mostly just scuffed and skinned up, so that was a minor consequence to her, her side felt rather bruised from that metal ball smashing her side.

Had she stayed on top of Shampoo for another moment, she would have seen Shampoo's eyes snap open a moment before she got to her feet and yelled wordlessly, causing Nove to stop and turn wide eyed just in time to have _both_ of Shampoo's weapons strike her, one in her back, the other to her head, causing her to scream in pain as she flew away from her opponent.

Shampoo panted as she watched her opponent crash onto her back and slide into a pier post. She smirked to herself. That outsider was good, but that defeat back in the village was just a fluke. Now all she had to do was get her great grandmother here to confirm that she had won and she'd have no more reason to be in this stupid land with its stupid language.

Groaning in pain, despite the blows she had just taken, Nove's eyes snapped open, her amber eyes seemed to turn a brighter shade of yellow as she got up and screamed loudly. "Airliner!" She called out, a yellow road appearing under her and heading straight for Shampoo's feet, before rushing so fast that she blurred, her roller-blades and geared armor appeared on her feet before she planted a knee in Shampoo's gut at such high speeds that the amazon went flying backwards before Nove rushed after her, rolling ahead of her and kicking straight up, hitting Shampoo in the back of the head as she tumbled end over end straight up into the air.

Shampoo could only look, through the stars as that yellow road appeared around her and her opponent sped around her, a fist clocked her in the side, a foot connected to her ass, a knee to her jaw, an elbow to the small of her back, another punch to her chest, each blow sent her higher and higher as she bounced around like a ping-pong ball in mid-air.

Nove rushed ahead of Shampoo and glared down as she mentally commanded her Airliner to make paths under the prone body of her opponent. "Super..." She growled as she raced down on her road before jumping off and kicking down, "Nove..." she was rewarded as her foot connected with Shampoo's midsection, forcing the air out of Shampoo's lungs. "KIIIICK!" She screamed as she drove Shampoo through several levels of her Airliner.

Shampoo quickly learned that despite the fact that the surface of Airliner was made of magic, any surface strong enough to support massive weight was also hard enough to _hurt_ when you crashed through it and many, many other levels of it as she was forced through the layers of magic before crashing into the beach, hard.

This time, she didn't get up.

Nove was panting as she looked at the downed form of her opponent. Had she been thinking straight, she would have stopped right then and there. Despite how angry she could get with her sisters, especially Wendi, and how violent she could get while sparring, Nove was, at heart, a kind girl. However, that hit to the head she took caused her to partially get knocked out and had her running on instinct alone and her built-in combat cyborg subroutines had over-rode her rational mind and had her fight until either she was incapable of fighting anymore or until the opponent was dead.

As Nove got off of Shampoo, she raised a foot up to attempt to crush her opponent's head under her foot, before she got tackled from the side, causing her to crash into the sand and slide a few feet, causing her shorts to push off her hips a bit as she was straddled by someone yelling her name loudly.

Blinking a few times, her eyes cleared as she got a good look at Wendi, wild, crazy and slightly psychotic Wendi, looking down at her with a worried expression as she pinned down the shorter redhead. "Wendi?" She blinked, wondering why her butt felt like there was hot sand on it.

"You okay?" Wendi asked as it looked like Nove finally was relaxing under her.

"Yeah..." Nove nodded with a soft voice, blinking at her sister a few times. "What... Happened?" The short redhead groaned as the pain in her head registered in her skull. "Oww..." Moaning, Nove reached up to rub her head gently.

"I'm not sure what happened..." Wendi admitted as she got off of Nove and helped her up, before dusting off Nove's back and rear of the sand, the shorter redhead blushed as she felt Wendi's hands move around on places on her butt that they shouldn't be. It probably didn't help Nove that Cinque and Sein had gotten there at the same time as Wendi and were watching Wendi rub the sand off of her ass. Thankfully they refused to comment and even looked away as Nove bent down to grab her shorts, which had fallen to her ankles, her face turned red as Wendi wiped sand away that had gotten a bit "high up" between her legs. "Not now." She hissed as she finally pulled her shorts up and buttoned them up, just in time as the rest of the group, sans Ranma and Tre, who got there a few moments later, managed to get to where Shampoo was down.

"Is she dead?" Otto asked and tapped Shampoo's body with a toe.

"She's breathing at least." Sette commented, before leaving the girl and walking over to Nove and looked her over. "...You have sand in your..." She looked Nove over a bit more. "Everywhere."

Nove grimaced and squirmed slightly. "Got more on me when Wendi tackled me." She could STILL feel the sand between her butt-cheeks.

Nodding, the tall cyborg walked up to Nove, grabbed her by her shorts, giving the girl a wedgie, before tossing her into the water, getting a sweat-drop from Wendi as Nove screamed in the air before she splashed into the water. "Wash off then."

"What brought that on, Sette?" Wendi asked, wishing she had thought about that when Nove's shorts had been around her knees.

The tall pinkette shrugged, she honestly had no idea. "It's funny?"

Nove glared at Sette as she spat out salt water. "Sette..." She growled softly.

"You sure did make a mess, girl." Cologne said as she looked over Shampoo's prone body, shaking her head, before she looked at Nove, raising an eyebrow. "Not bad, I have to admit." She chuckled and pressed a few pressure points on Shampoo's body, dulling the pain.

"Will she leave me alone from now on?" Nove asked, eliciting a laugh from the old woman in response.

"Oh please." Cologne rolled her eyes at that. "You think the fact that she got the beating of a lifetime will stop an Amazon? Much less my heir?" The old woman shook her head. "No, if anything, this will just entice her to train harder." She really couldn't be more pleased by this situation.

"Aren't you worried I'll kill her next time?" Nove asked as she got out of the water.

Cologne shrugged at that. "Death is a part of life, but I would like it if you wouldn't kill her."

"Then keep her away from me for awhile." Nove muttered as she walked past the old woman, anger and loathing in her eyes. She blinked as she felt a hand on her arm, turning, she looked at Cinque, who was looking at her with concern in her eye. "Cinque-nee?"

"Come on, let's talk." She said softly, pulling Nove away as she did so, nodding at Ranma as they walked away.

Dieci looked at Uno, who shook her head. "Hey, come on, excitement's over, let's go and relax before we hurt someone." The eldest of the girls said, getting her sisters to start moving, at various speeds, out of the area. The last ones there was Ranma and Tre. Tre because she was having trouble moving and needed Ranma's help to even stand up and Ranma because he was looking at Cologne.

"Well?"

The old Amazon chuckled. "You were right, this "Nove" girl is a great sparring partner for Shampoo."

Ranma nodded, smirking softly. "Just make sure that Shampoo knows enough not to try and kill Nove, otherwise I will get upset."

"Of course." Cologne nodded as she picked up Shampoo and bounded away.

(---)

"Nove, talk to me." Cinque said as she looked at her pacing sister. "None of our other sisters will bug you right now, okay?" Wendi might have, considering she was only a few feet away, but she wasn't moving, so Cinque didn't think she'd interfere. "You won, right? You're okay?"

Nove growled and kicked a rock, shattering it completely. "It... It wasn't me that won." She finally spoke up as she sat down on the sand, ignoring how it felt, she hugged her legs and pulled them close to her head. "She hit me hard in the head, then... Everything went blank, except for... rage and pain... Next thing I know, I'm on my back, almost lost my shorts and that girl's nearly dead."

"Nove..." Cinque started to speak, but her sister wasn't going to stop ranting.

"I can see it now, what I did... It was completely automatic, no emotion to it... Like... Like I was a machine..."

"That bothers you then..." Cinque said as she walked up behind Nove and rubbed her back.

The redhead nodded, not even bothering to hide the fact that tears were starting to fall down her face. "I hate it... I hate the fact that I acted like that."

"It's a part of who we are." The smallest cyborg said soothingly to her younger sister. "It's hard for us to control it sometimes."

"I..." Nove sniffled, tears falling out of her eyes more. "I like the fact that no one expects us to be that around here, that no one wants us to be like that. I like... I like it when people treat me like I'm human, but that... It just reminds me how much..."

"Nove..." Cinque said softly and hugged her sister from behind. "You aren't a machine, or a robot. It's in all of us." She closed her good eye as she held her trembling sister. "You know what I see when I look at you?"

"A robot that should shut down before she hurts someone?" Nove said, sniffling miserably.

Cinque shook her head. "No. I see someone who argues with her sisters, someone who enjoys the morning spars with me, Sette, Tre, the panda and Ranma, someone who hurt someone badly and now feels bad about it." She opened her good eye to see that Nove had turned to look at her, eyes red and tears running down her face. "So, you aren't a robot, Nove. You're just Nove. My precious little sister who doesn't know how to deal with guilt." She gave Nove's cheek a chaste kiss and smiled softly.

"Cinque-nee?" Nove blinked in confusion as Cinque smiled at her. The wind picked up and blew her long silver hair from behind her to surround and frame her face as she sat down next to Nove.

"You're my sister, not some mindless machine. That's all there is to it." She wasn't surprised when Nove hugged her a moment later, thanking her for that.

After all, it was an uphill battle for all the combat cyborgs. To live life as a human when you were built for battle wasn't easy. It just took time and patience.

(---)

"I still can't believe you convinced me to allow that." Tre muttered softly.

Ranma raised an eyebrow at her. It had been a few minutes since the fight and the rest of Tre's sisters, except for Nove, Cinque and Wendi, who seemed to be off at a different part of the beach, were finally starting to relax and play in both the water and volleyball. At least Otto had taken his advice and had changed into a darker tank top. Was gray, but it still wouldn't be see-through when it got wet as she and Deed each took turns jumping off of Sette, who was ducking herself under water, before pushing up, and the twins then jumped off her shoulders when she hit the peak of her lunge upwards, causing them to fly up, laughing as they came down with a splash.

"What?" He asked as he rubbed some oil on his hands and looked at Tre, who was laying on a beach chair, on a towel, bare naked. The two were up by the beach houses that they were using for this trip and Tre was looking around, almost nervously. It was one thing to fight and get disrobed, it was another thing to be caught naked and vulnerable. Especially as Ranma got above her and started to rub the oils into her back while pressing several points and kneading the tense muscles in her skin. "Getting Nove and Shampoo to fight like that?"

"Yeah..." She muttered, sighing softly as she rested her head on her arms, which were crossed and acting as a make-shift pillow.

He shrugged as he worked his way down her back, towards her butt. "To be honest, I had originally planned for Nove to spar against Ryoga when he was around, but when Shampoo decided that Nove looked a lot like my girl form, the idea just sprung into my head." He didn't intend for Nove to look so upset about it though, and it did bother him that she gotten upset about it.

Tre hissed and groaned as his fingers pressed into her butt. "I'm surprised." A new voice spoke up, getting Tre to blink and move her head, since the rest of her body was still numb and sluggish, only for Tre to nearly groan as she saw Uno's amused face. "You get embarrassed when people see you like this, Tre, I'm surprised you're doing this in the open."

Tre rolled her eyes as Uno sat down on a chair near her. At least it was Uno and not some stranger. "Only in the bedroom." She muttered, her face red as Ranma chuckled at that. "What's so funny?" She asked, wincing as tiny pinpricks went through her leg.

"Nothing really." He shook his head as he rubbed her leg down. "There is a difference between being seen naked and being seen naked and vulnerable after all."

Blinking, the two looked at him, well, Uno looked at him, Tre just kind of turned her head as best she could. "It's hard, for someone who wants to be seen as strong and powerful to get caught in a vulnerable position, even if it's just something like nudity, or sleeping with someone." Blinking, Ranma looked up into the sky, thinking about it for a moment before nodding. "Especially if you're caught sleeping with someone."

Tre's face was red and she sighed as she looked down at the sand. "...I don't like being weak."

"I never said you were." Ranma commented and slapped her butt, not hard, but it was enough to get her to tense up. "Relax. I know that you tease your sisters by walking around in a large shirt and your underwear."

"That's... Different." Tre muttered as Uno fought back the urge to laugh. "I'm in control there, not..."

"Not like when you're in bed with someone, you have to let down all your defenses to enjoy it..." Uno said softly, shaking her head and cupping Tre's face, getting a blink from the more combat-oriented woman. She shrugged and smiled. "It's always why you need to go first." She laughed as Tre's face turned red and she pulled away, getting another laugh from Ranma, who was now massaging her upper back, getting a small hiss from the tall cyborg in the process.

Still, even while he laughed, Ranma looked over to where he could feel Nove, Cinque and Wendi. He just hoped that Nove didn't try something stupid.

(---)

"I can't believe him." Akane glared up at Ranma as she watched his hands rub the side of Tre's body. "Fondling that..."

"Cyborg?" Nabiki asked as she looked at her sister, who was standing up and glaring at Ranma, before the younger girl spun on her sister. "What?"

"Can't you see what's going on?" Akane hissed as Nabiki shrugged.

"Her body's not the same as yours, little sister." Nabiki shook her head as Akane's eyes seemed to flash. "To be fair to her, I don't think Ranma's ever used pressure points to combat a cyborg before." Well, except maybe pleasure pressure points, but only Subaru or Ginga could honestly say one way or the other, since the Numbers had, until Ranma took over as Jail, been enemies.

Akane snorted at that. "He just has to be all over that floozy..." She growled and twitched as she saw Ranma slapping Tre on the butt.

Nabiki rolled her eyes, got up and walked behind Akane before striking out incredibly fast, her hands a blur, though she was going fairly slow in her opinion and watched as Akane crumpled like a sack of potatoes.

"H...hey!" Akane tried to struggle, but her muscles wouldn't respond.

"See, little sister?" Nabiki leaned in and whispered softly to Akane. "Tre was hit with that, yet she kept going. Her body's different enough that she was able to keep moving even if her muscles were screaming at her to let them relax and work it out for themselves." When Akane didn't say anything, Nabiki nodded and pressed a few points on her back, causing Akane's eyes to widen as she could feel her muscles respond to her again. "It's different for Tre and her sisters. Ranma's actually testing the waters and seeing what works."

"Did he have to slap her... On the..."

"Butt? Rear end? Ass? Gheddo Booty?" Nabiki smirked as her sister turned red and yelped indignantly. "Who knows? Knowing him, he probably thought she needed to relax."

Akane grumbled and walked off, leaving Nabiki to sigh and sit down on the beach chair. She wondered what was going through Akane's head, but shrugged it off, her sister was crazy at times. _Then again..._ She mentally trailed off as she looked down the beach where Sein was playing catch with her father, Kasumi and Genma in his panda form. It was rather fun to watch actually. She had honestly expected Genma or Soun to try something by now, but they just looked like they were having fun.

"More peace for me at least." She muttered to herself and leaned back on the chair. Lazy days were always the best.

(---)

Later that night...

Nabiki shook her head and wondered why Ranma had told her to go to the camp fire that was going off in the distance. _Knowing him, he probably set up some sort of booby trap that will strip me naked and take pictures._ She thought to herself before shaking it off. Ranma hadn't done anything like that since nudity stopped being any sort of taboo. So what if she was naked? Naruto had run around a whole loop naked once just because he was playing a prank.

When she got to the campfire, dressed in a white jacket over her shoulders to ward off the cool air and a maroon one-piece, she raised an eyebrow as she saw Otto, wearing the same clothes that she had from earlier, sitting there, looking nervous. "Otto? What are you doing here?"

"Uh..." Otto blinked and tapped her hands together.

Nabiki sighed and sat down near the boyish girl. "Lemme guess, Ranma told you to come here?"

Otto shook her head, getting a blink from Nabiki. "I wanted to, um, go on a date, and..."

"Wait, wait..." Nabiki rubbed her forehead as she interrupted Otto. "You wanted to go on a date with me?" When Otto nodded, Nabiki groaned slightly. "He set me up on a blind date, that jerk, I'm going to break his legs!" If she could. Hell, Nabiki would have better luck trying to blow up one of Ranma's Death Stars in his pocket universe with a wooden toothpick than breaking Ranma's legs with an atomic missile.

"So... You don't want to then?" Otto asked, getting Nabiki's attention as she caught a glimpse of honest hurt in the girl's eyes as she started to get up. "Sorry, I guess..."

"Wait..." Nabiki sighed as she got up and walked around the fire to put her hands on Otto's shoulders. "Look, you're cute, okay, but I'm more upset that no one told me about this, that's all." Seeing the confusion in her eyes, Nabiki shook her head. "Look, I'm not against hanging out or spending time together. But do you even know what you want?"

Otto scratched her head and slowly, reluctantly, shook her head, getting a small smile from Nabiki.

"I didn't think so." She said and sat down, pulling Otto with her.

"Uh..." The boyish girl blinked as Nabiki smirked at her.

"What? The campfire seems nice and it would be a shame to waste such a nice night by myself." She winked at Otto, who blushed.

Mentally, Nabiki just shrugged. What was another loop in a lesbian relationship anyway? She had been in plenty already, one more wouldn't hurt. Even if she preferred men.

A bit away from the two, Deed, who had been watching Otto and Nabiki quietly got up and walked off, her mind spinning awhirl.

(---)

"What are you doing out here?" Dieci blinked and turned to look at Sein, who smiled at her. "I thought you'd be inside."

Dieci shrugged as she stood outside, looking at the beach at night. "Maybe, but it's really peaceful right now."

Sein nodded and walked up to her sister before leaning against the railing that Dieci was gripping. "Yeah, it is nice." The two stood in silence for awhile.

"This world is a bit weird though." Sein chuckled softly. "Martial Arts Figure Skating? Martial Arts Surfing? What's next, Martial Arts Take Out?" The two sisters shared a laugh at that, like something that stupid could actually happen.

"Still..."

"What?" Sein looked at Dieci, who shook her head.

"I dunno, I just feel kind of naked since Ranma took my cannon away to work on it." Dieci admitted with a small blush on her face.

Sein suddenly laughed. "Oh please! The only one of us who would run around naked would be Wendi." Dieci couldn't help but laugh at that. "Besides, Ranma said that he was going to make it better."

"Yeah..." The brown-haired cyborg sighed softly. "But do you think that maybe he's doing too much?"

"Huh?" Sein was confused, what brought this up?

Dieci shrugged as she looked out at the beach. "Maybe we should do something for him? I mean, he's working hard to help all of us, but there's ten of us, it can't be easy."

Sein nodded at that. "So... What do you wanna do?"

"...I'm not sure." Dieci looked at Sein, who shook her head.

"Me neither." Sein sighed softly.

(---)

Later that night...

"What are you still doing up?"

Blinking, Nove, who was sitting on the roof of the beach house that she, Wendi, and Cinque were using, turned and saw Ranma, who was laying on his back while looking up at the stars, his arms crossed behind his head. "Huh?"

"Thought you'd be asleep by now." He said, it was late, everyone else had gone to sleep, though he hadn't seen Otto or Nabiki and figured that they were still out by the campfire.

"What about you? Won't Un-nee and Tre-nee miss you?" Nove asked curiously.

Ranma chuckled at that. "I'm heading back in soon enough, but I felt you out here and I wanted to talk."

"Oh?" Nove blinked at that as Ranma sat up and looked at her seriously. "About what?"

Ranma sighed as he shook his head slowly. "From earlier, I didn't expect you to get so upset over what happened." When Nove flinched and turned away, he frowned softly. "Was it because you hurt her?" When she didn't respond at all, he took a stab in the dark, though he had a feeling that he knew what was wrong. "Or is it because of how you did it?" There was a moment of tension, just brief, but it told him everything he needed to know. "Thought so."

Nove whirled on him, frowning, but her eyes were more curious than angry. "What do you know about it? About how..."

"How you must have been hurt and angry, the only thing you wanted at the time was to make the rage, the pain and the frustration you were feeling go away, no matter who you had to lash out against and hurt?"

Nove stared at him, speechless after he had interrupted her. "...how?"

"Been there myself. Met a lot of people across the multiverse who have a similar problem." Ranma shrugged. "None of them ever asked for it, it was in their blood, and when it was done, some of them came out of it surrounded by dead bodies of their friends and family." Sighing, his eyes gained a distant look in them. "They always came out of it feeling horribly guilty, even though all of them knew that they couldn't control it."

"None of them were machines though..." Nove muttered, getting a snort from Ranma. "What?"

"Maybe not, but they all felt like monsters after they were done." Ranma sighed softly. "To be honest, Nove, the fact that you feel like this..." He trailed off, smiling at the short redhead as she looked on in confusion. "Just means that you're human, just like me, your sisters, the Tendos, or people like Nanoha or Fate." Granted, Ranma wasn't a normal human after all this time, Nanoha was a freak of nature, Fate was a clone and her sisters were all cyborgs, but that wasn't the point.

When Nove hugged him tightly, thanking him, he smiled and rubbed her back tenderly as he hugged her back. No, this was the point.

Honestly, he wondered when he became like this, but he shrugged it off. Millennia of actually having friends that understood what he was going through made him a lot more empathetic than what he had used to be.

Well, that and he really did care about these girls.

The next morning found Wendi, dressed in loose shirt and her underwear, stretching with her arms above her head, allowing anyone who was up and looking to see her green underwear that she was wearing as she walked outside incredibly early, the sun was just beginning to rise and she wanted to watch a sunrise by the ocean just once in her life.

"Ah, good, I was just about to get you up." She blinked a few times and turned to look as her reddish eyes widened as she saw Ranma standing there in a wetsuit, smirking at her.

"You're up early."

Ranma laughed at her. "Come on, let's get practicing before the others wake up." He chuckled at her and tossed her a dry wetsuit. "Get changed. You're not at the water in five minutes, I'll drag you out, regardless if you're naked or not." He smirked at her. "Unless you want someone to see you trying to surf in the buff." Not that he'd let her go naked, plus he doubted that she cared, but he was interested in her response.

Wendi shrugged at that. "Going naked around you? Don't you think Un-nee and Tre-nee would be upset?"

"What about Nove?" He asked her as she smirked at him.

"Could be interesting." She said with a laugh.

"I think Cinque or Sein might be embarrassed if you ran around naked though." He said as he turned around and started walking to the water. "That's just me though."

A few minutes later Ranma smirked as he saw Wendi coming towards him in the skin-tight wetsuit. "Glad you decided to not go naked."

Wendi rolled her eyes at that. "So, where's the boards?"

Ranma smirked at her. "You'll see."

Hours later...

Nove stretched as she and Cinque walked out of their beach house. She had to admit, it was rather nice not to be woken up at the crack of dawn for once. Still... "Nove!" She blinked and turned to Sein, who was pointing down to the ocean.

Turning, her amber eyes widened in shock as she saw Wendi, one arm slung across Ranma's shoulders, being helped back to the beach house. Strangely, Wendi looked as if she had gone through a war zone against several S-Rank mages, her body was scuffed up, bruised, her clothing was in tatters and she looked half dead. "Wendi?" Nove asked as she got closer to the other redhead. "What happened?"

Blinking, the taller girl whimpered and clung to Nove. "He's horrible!" She squeezed Nove tightly. "His training's sadistic!"

"Uh... I know." Nove muttered as she hugged Wendi and looked at Ranma, who shrugged. "Or did you forget what he did to Cinque and I at the ice rink?"

"Waaaah!" Wendi bawled out, leaving Sein, Nove, Cinque and Ranma sweat-dropping.

"Maybe I shouldn't have frozen the water when she was riding that wave." Ranma muttered absently.

It was this scene that Nabiki and Otto, still wearing what they did last night, both covered in a touch of sand, stumbled on. "...You put her through what you've put Keiichi through?"

Ranma shook his head. "Keiichi couldn't survive what Wendi can." The aforementioned redhead whimpered and Nove gave him a bit of a sharp look. "Look, let's get some food, I'm rather hungry right now."

Sighing, Nabiki nodded. "Right. Let's go."

"That's it?" Nove asked as Ranma, Nabiki and a sleepy Otto moved back to the beach houses.

"The next time you're back in your universe, ask Fate about some of the training she's seen him put others through." Nabiki responded, sighing lightly as Otto leaned against her.

Cinque shook her head and patted Nove on the back. "I don't think it's too bad. Wendi's just not used to what he was doing. When he trained us, he stopped before we got hurt."

Nove sighed softly. "You okay, Wendi?" It was slightly uncomfortable having to support Wendi's weight fully, but nothing she couldn't handle. Well, that and people were watching her, that always made it more embarrassing.

"Water turn to ice, I go splat." The other redhead mumbled softly and squeezed tighter.

Nove sweat-dropped, at least nothing was broken.

Sein frowned softly and rubbed Wendi's back. "You sure you're okay?"

The taller girl blinked a few times before shaking her head. "Uh... Sorry, yeah, I'm okay, just kind of shocked..."

Nove dropped Wendi to the ground out of exasperation. "Come on, let's go eat." She said as she helped Wendi to her feet. Annoying as Wendi could be, Nove cared for the slightly psychotic girl.

Then again, was she any better?

Later...

Dieci blinked as she and the others were at a fairly large restaurant, in front of her was a large stack of western-style pancakes covered in maple syrup. "This is good?"

Ranma laughed at her confused look. "A lot of American and tourists come through this place and the staff just decided to make the meals more appealing to them."

Blinking, Dieci started in on the pancakes in front of her, before her eyes widened. "That..." She swallowed her food. "Was GOOD!"

Akane sweat-dropped as Dieci tore into the food. "...Is that normal?"

Nabiki coughed quietly and gestured to the others, all of whom were eating large amounts of food as well. "They burn a lot of calories." Well, most of them did, Uno was only eating as much as most normal people were.

"I guess..." Akane blinked as she went back to eating.

"So, Wendi, what did he do to you?" Sein asked around a mouthful of juice, getting twitches from the redhead. "Was it that bad?"

Wendi twitched a few more times as she thought about how it happened.

Flashback...

"Seriously, this is nuts!" Wendi muttered as she felt her concentration waver and she nearly fell off her board again. "GAH!" She screamed as a funnel of water came out of the wave and drilled her in the gut, sending her up and over the top of the wave and into the water below.

Ranma shook his head as he sunk under the wave and came up after it had passed to look at Wendi, who was looking at him helplessly. "You could have done better."

Whimpering, the redhead just knew she was going to have it worse the next time.

"But at least you can focus your energy like I wanted you to." Ranma smiled at her proudly, getting a nervous chuckle from Wendi. "Now we just have to work on your ability to hold it while under battle pressure." The smirk on his face did nothing to reassure her. Especially as he formed a semi-solid board under him out of the water he was standing on.

A moment later, she joined him as she created a board, very similar to his, though it tended to flucutate between solid and liquid, causing her to nearly fall in the water again.

"Almost there." Ranma smirked at her. "Let's go again."

End Flashback...

"Then he froze the wave I was on..." Wendi muttered, rubbing her head. "That sucked, I went splat." She emphasized this by slapping her hands together, getting sweat-drops from her sisters that were listening in.

"So, when is this surfing contest again?" Nabiki asked around a bite of food.

"A couple of days." Ranma smirked at her, then turned to Wendi. "Trust me, you'll thank me for this later."

"Be careful son, you're starting to sound like me." Genma intoned, only to get a glass of water in the face for his troubles and a grumpy panda appeared.

"Please, he's only horrible to his true students." Nabiki rolled her eyes at that. "Then again, they asked to be trained by him, so they really were asking for it."

Ranma grumbled as Uno rubbed his back softly. "You're just upset because I made you fight Gozer that one time."

"One time?" Nabiki raised an eyebrow.

"Fine, fine..." Ranma muttered and went back to eating. He hadn't been lying, he was rather hungry at that moment.

"Where were you last night anyway?" Akane asked Nabiki as they continued to eat breakfast. "You and Otto were gone all night."

Nabiki shrugged and smirked at her younger sister. "Wouldn't you like to know?" She didn't say anything more as Akane turned red and said nothing more, though Akane had wondered just when her sister had turned into such a complete pervert.

Looking at Otto, Sette frowned lightly and put her hand on Otto's head, getting a sharp look from the boyish girl. "...You still have sand in your hair. Are you okay?"

Otto scratched her head and nodded. "It'll wash out."

Sette nodded at that. "True, but it gets uncomfortable if it gets into places that are hard to reach or clean."

"So, what are you going to do today?" Soun asked Ranma, who shrugged at the question and swallowed his food.

"Well..."

"OHohohohohohohoho!" A familiar laugh broke out, getting startled looks from most everyone at the table, except Deed, who perked up and turned to the door. "My esteemed friend and her family here at the beach when I, the Black Rose, decided to come here before it gets too cold to enjoy the surf and sun." Kodachi Kuno announced loudly, getting several soft groans from the people at the table.

Deed smiled as she waved Kodachi over to her table. "Good to see you too."

"Yeah, no kidding..." Tre deadpanned as she got up. "I think I need to do some running right now." Her legs still felt a bit stiff and tingly from yesterday.

"I'll join you." Nove and Sein said at the same time as they left the table, thankfully their plates were mostly empty by that time, so no one really gave it much thought.

Well, that and Kodachi slipped in between Deed and Otto, giggling softly. "I do have to admit though, you could do with some... More sophisticated of a palate than just Western breakfast."

"Maybe, but the stuff's pretty filling, which is great if you work out a lot or plan on working for the next eight or so hours straight." Ranma commented to her. "Plus it's fairly cheap for the amount that you get."

"Growf!" The panda at the table commented as he licked his plate clean.

Kodachi just blinked as she looked at him. "Quite a... Trained panda you have here."

"True," Nabiki smirked at her, "we just have to make sure that it gets enough bamboo to eat. But we do need to take him in to get his shots. Can't have him getting rabies."

"Growf?!" The panda looked at her in alarm.

"Yep, plus we may have to sell it to the zoo for breeding purposes." Ranma added with a laugh, getting a terrified yelp from the panda, and a confused look from everyone else, Kodachi because she couldn't believe that the panda knew what was going on, and the others because they knew Genma was a human.

Not funny! The panda "yelled" as he held up a sign.

"Sure it is." Ranma smirked as he stood up. "Come on, Wendi, we need to keep practicing." The redhead dropped her head on the table, causing all the table-wear to clatter as she groaned. "It'll be easy this time."

Groaning, Wendi pulled herself from the table slowly as she followed Ranma out of the room.

Cinque shook her head in amusement and looked at Uno, who nodded. "I'm sorry, but Uno and I were going to spend some time together today."

"I'll come with you." Otto said as she got up and got a shrug from Uno in response.

"Sure, not a problem." The eldest of the cyborgs smiled as the three of them left the table, just leaving the Tendos, Sette, Dieci, Deed and Kodachi at the table.

Kodachi blinked and frowned softly. "I do not think that your sisters like me very much."

"My pink haired goddess! I shall, IEEEE!" Sette blinked and looked at the door and the human-shaped hole next to it just as Otto, Cinque and Uno left.

"What was that about?" Sette asked no one in particular.

Dieci was too busy slowly licking the syrup off of her fork to really comment. This stuff was really good. She would have eaten more, but she was so full now and just wanted to enjoy the taste.

(---)

"Otto, you may want to shower before we go out." Cinque commented, getting Otto to scratch her head, sand falling out of her hair, in response.

Behind them, Uno frowned softly. "Otto, what was with you shooting that boy with your Ray Storm?"

Blinking, the boyish girl turned to her sister and just looked at her in confusion. "What boy?"

"What..?" Uno blinked a few times when it became obvious that Otto had no idea what she was talking about. "...Nevermind." She sighed. "Just go get washed up."

"Sure." The brown-haired, flat-chested girl smiled softly.

It was sometime later that Uno, Otto and Cinque found themselves outside of a large building, looking at it curiously, before Cinque let her curiosity get the better of her and went to open the door, but stopped as she saw Nove, Tre and Sein, all changed into clothes that were better suited for running, and waved them down as they jogged by. "Hey!" The three stopped as they heard Cinque calling out to them. As they got closer, Sein fell to her knees panting. She might have had more stamina than most people, but Nove and Tre really took the cake. She was just glad that she didn't even try to keep up.

"You'll cramp up." Nove muttered and helped Sein to her feet. "What's up, Cinque-nee?" She asked as she looked at her older sister, then at the building.

"Wanna come inside?" Cinque jerked a thumb at the building.

"Why not?" Tre said as she and the others followed Cinque inside, wondering what they'd see.

Inside, the six didn't know what they were expecting, but a fairly nice atmosphere, bright lights, several lengths of polished floor, separated by a dip on each side that led down to a bunch of upright items that some people were rolling balls down the lengths of floor to knock over. There was a counter with a man by a till standing behind it. Otto and Cinque looked to the left of the doorway and saw a section that had people standing around, talking and seemingly having fun, before they went that way, they were curious.

Tre frowned as she watched what was going on. "What are they doing?"

"Never been bowling?" The man behind the counter asked, getting the attention of herself, Sein, Uno and Nove. "It's a fun game."

Uno shook her head. "Sadly, no. We, um, didn't really have much human contact before now."

"Heh, it's obvious." The man chuckled. "You wanna play?"

"Why not?" Nove shrugged, this could be interesting.

After getting new shoes for the game and an explanation on how it worked, the four had found balls that they could fit their fingers in.

"Remember, Un-nee, you're not supposed to go beyond that line." Sein said with a small grin. The four had decided that they'd just go in order of their names.

Nodding, Uno took a few steps forward before releasing her ball, and frowned as it seemed to veer off course and only hit a couple pins on the side. "Well, that wasn't fun." She muttered, before turning to grab another ball.

"Hey! That's mine!" Nove muttered as Uno picked up the one she had chosen.

"Well, I don't have another one, so what am I supposed to do?" She asked, before turning and, repeating what she did last time, rolled the ball down the lane, this time it veered in the opposite direction, knocking over a few more pins. At the end of the first frame, she had knocked over six pins.

Nove pouted, now she needed to get another ball. She watched as Tre grabbed her ball and took a step forward to bowl, but blinked. "Hey! Our balls came back." Nove pointed as the two bowling balls came out of a hole and rolled in line.

Uno blinked a few times. "...I guess it wouldn't make sense for people to have to get new balls all the time."

Nodding, Tre took a few steps forward before rolling the ball down the lane, a lot faster than Uno had, before it smashed into the pins, literally, as some of the shattered into pieces. "...Oops?" At least she had knocked them all down.

"Maybe we shouldn't use our full strength?" Sein muttered, just low enough that only her sisters could hear her. The four of them nodded as the manager had to come out and clean up the mess.

After the debris had been cleaned up and new pins put into place, the four continued their game. It took a little bit for the four to get the full hang of the game, but they did end up enjoying themselves.

By the end, Tre ended up with a decent score of 138, Nove ended up with 135, Uno had a final score of 102 and Sein only had a final score of 88, which caused the greenish-haired girl to pout as they took their shoes back to the counter. She just couldn't knock over all ten pins at all.

"Where's Otto and Cinque?" Nove asked, looking around for her sisters.

"Not sure." Uno said before catching a glimpse of silver. "That way." She pointed after she put her shoes back at the counter and slipped her outdoor footwear on.

The four made their way to the area where Cinque was and stopped as they got there, hearing people cheering Cinque and Otto as they threw some darts at a board. Otto was hitting various places, but she was getting pretty good scores.

Cinque, without her summer coat, which revealed that she was wearing shorts and a light blue sleeveless shirt, on the other hand, was getting perfect bulls-eyes, except the one time she needed the lone point to get to zero, she hit the one point just outside of the bulls-eye area, getting cheers from the men in the room.

"No matter how many times I see it, I'm still amazed!" One of them chuckled. "And she's doing it with one eye..."

"And she needs to throw them upwards too." Another man, this one with a beard, said in slight awe.

"That boy's not too bad either." The first man commented.

"Better than you." His friend next to him laughed as Otto took one extra turn to get to zero. It wasn't her fault, she just wasn't as good as Cinque when it came to throwing things. Still, it wasn't too unlike aiming her Ray Storm at someone.

Though, now that she thought about it, she hadn't really shot anyone with her Ray Storm in a long while.

Clapping to get their attention, Uno smiled at them. "Pretty good, but we should probably head back." They had been gone for hours. "Unless someone called back?"

The two shook their heads and Cinque grabbed her jacket and turned around, before stopping as Tre grabbed the darts Otto had been using and threw the three of them, into the triple 20 slot, getting a raised eyebrow from the shortest girl in response.

Uno sighed as Cinque put her jacket back and picked up the darts she was using. "Might as well sit and watch."

Otto laughed softly at that. "It's surprisingly fun."

"I bet." Uno commented as she, Sein and Nove sat down to watch the match between the two.

It was surprisingly good. Especially when someone suggested that they change games and try to hit each value once, starting with 1 and working their way to the bulls-eye. Cinque only won because Tre missed the 15 value once.

Idly Sein wondered if this world had some sort of weird martial arts dart throwing or martial arts bowling.

(---)

It was weird, Dieci had decided as she, Sette, Deed and Kodachi walked through the local shopping mall, other than her laugh and the way she would go on about being the best gymnastics woman in Nerima, after Deed, Kodachi really wasn't bad company, just really weird and high-strung. Sure, she seemed to be a bit haughty and prideful, but under that, Kodachi didn't seem like a bad person, unlike what Quattro had been.

It should be known that if anyone who lived in Nerima for any length of time had heard Dieci's thoughts they would have wondered if the world was ending.

But to those who looked at the four just found them to be normal, well, mostly normal as Sette towered over the other three as she followed behind silently. It was interesting for anyone who looked on to note that Dieci was just as quiet as the tall pinkette. Sette was just noticeable since she was so tall.

"I must admit, Deed..." Kodachi spoke up as she looked at Sette, then Dieci. "Your sisters are rather quiet, is this normal?"

Deed giggled softly and nodded. "Oh yes. Sette doesn't speak much, except to dad. Dieci's just naturally quiet."

"Am not." Dieci spoke up, lightly glaring at her younger sister. "I just like sitting back and watching Nove and Wendi make fools of themselves at home."

Deed laughed at that. "Plus it's fun to tease them in the morning when they're not getting smacked around in the back yard by the panda."

"Panda?" Kodachi asked as Dieci giggled at that. Sette, on the other hand, grimaced slightly and rubbed her shoulder. Silly-looking or not, that Panda could hit pretty hard when he was actually trying. "Oh, the trained pet at the table." She shrugged at that. "If it's so dangerous, I could... Arrange for it to be taken to the zoo."

"I don't think that dad would like that." Sette commented, getting Kodachi's attention. "He seems to like having the panda around for some reason." Plus it was rather funny to watch him argue with the panda over what went where when he was making the add-ons to the Tendo home for the extra rooms.

Kodachi shrugged at that. "It was, after all, a suggestion. Besides, pandas are, after all, a very endangered species. The zoo would help increase the panda population."

"Uh..." Deed sweat-dropped, even as Dieci clamped her hands over her mouth to keep from laughing and even Sette cracked a smile and started to snicker lightly. "I don't think it would work out..."

"Now I know why dad was laughing earlier." Sette mused aloud, getting a confused look from Kodachi in response. Sometimes things were only funny if someone who didn't know what was going on commented on it.

Kodachi blinked, but shrugged it off, she was enjoying the company she was in, and they didn't seem to mind her laughter. Well, there was some cringing from Dieci and Sette, but other than that, they weren't bad company and it was a pleasant change from normal. Well, normal for her at any rate.

(---)

A few days later...

"Where are... I don't even need to ask, do I?" Tre finished as Ranma grinned at her and nodded while chuckling.

"Nope." He pointed and Tre groaned as she watched the events unfold.

"And welcome to, ACK!" The announcer cried out, before a thumping noise was heard as he was pulled out of the box, much to the confusion of everyone who didn't know what was going on.

"HELLO everybody!" A new voice was heard over the loudspeakers. "This is your new announcer Sein, with my co-announcers Nove and Cinque!"

"Hello." Cinque was heard. "I'm hoping for a really good match-up."

"Kick his ass, Wendi!" Nove called out, getting sweat-drops from everyone listening.

"Sometimes I wonder if they just do that to cheer for each other." Sette wondered aloud as she looked at the beach, where Wendi, dressed in a green bikini was standing and waiting, before blinking as several people, most of them taller than her, not to mention far more muscular, not that Wendi was complaining about that, all wearing swim trunks and carrying boards were heading her way.

"Well..." The one in the middle said as he stepped out. He had short blond hair, green trunks and had sunglasses on as he held his board in his hand. "I'm surprised you even bothered to show up at all." He chuckled as he took off his glasses and tossed them to one of his friends. "I, Surfer Joe, am going to show you just what this sport's all about."

"Who the heck is he?" Tre asked, frowning, she really didn't like this guy.

"Someone from Hawaii?" Ranma could only shrug in response, he had never met the guy. Or if he had, he had just forgotten. He honestly didn't care too much about most of the people he only met one time and never saw ever again.

Some girl in a thong bikini and pin-stripe top walked out to the two, "Okay, you should know the rules." She spoke up, ignoring the way several people were staring at her ass, that was only to be expected, in her opinion. "You're to surf out until you catch a large enough wave and ride it back in. While doing so, you are to use any means necessary to knock your opponent off of his or her board without getting knocked off yourself. The match ends as soon as one person either gives up, can no longer go out and surf anymore, or one person remains on his or her board by the time that you both come in." She looked at Wendi. "...Where's your board?"

The redhead smirked as a nearly transparent board seemingly materialized in front of her. "This work?"

The referee shrugged. "Works for me. On your marks!" As she said this, both Wendi and Surfer Joe ran to the edge of the water. "Get set..." The boards were on the water as both looked at each other and smirked, this could be fun. "And go!"

As they watched Wendi and Surfer Joe go out into the water, Tre turned to Ranma with a confused expression on her face. "How can she do that?"

"Just an adaptation of her Aerial Rave skill." Ranma chuckled softly at her look. "Really, it's not that hard to imagine is it?"

"But... How?"

Ranma laughed at her confused look. "It's not hard, honestly. She just needed to visualize the energy in the form of a board. She still has problems making it out of pure energy." Gesturing towards Wendi as she and Surfer Joe swam out on their boards, he smiled softly. "She's using some water and air right now. It shouldn't be too long until she can make it out of energy."

"But her Aerial Rave is just her ability to use her board better than anyone else..." Uno trailed off as Ranma shrugged and smirked.

"Please, if all you have is a hammer, you need to learn how to use it in various ways." He held up a screwdriver for Tre and Uno to look at. "What do you see?"

"Screwdriver." They said at the same time.

"Yep. But I also see a chisel, a spear-tip, a bludgeoning object, an electrical outlet..." He trailed off as the two sweat-dropped slightly. "That's the same thing with Wendi's ability. It's one thing, but it can do other things as well. It doesn't just have to work with a board, she can use stuff around her, and if she works at it enough, she'll be able to do it without a physical object." Honestly, Ranma wondered if Wendi would get that good. If Subaru was any indication, then most of the cyborgs should have a pretty good learning curve.

After all, not many people could create a technique, or some variation of a technique, from scratch after seeing it used only once. Most everyone had to be walked through any sort of technique from start to finish to make it work.

(---)

Wendi grimaced as her concentration wavered slightly, before she focused again, making the board more solid as she and Surfer Joe rode up on the wave as it started to form. "Woah!" She ducked under a shell that was thrown at her eye. "Hey, watch it!"

"Of course, just give up and nothing will happen." He chuckled as he surfed right at her and punched at her face, which she caught. "Not bad." He commented, his eyes widening as she lifted him up and off his board, before throwing him at the water.

"Heh, I win." She smirked, only to frown as he seemed to snap a long bandanna out of nowhere and wrap around his board and pull it to him in an instant.

"Don't think so." Surfer Joe smirked. "I've long studied the best ways to humiliate people while surfing and how to keep myself on the boards!" He crossed his arms and chuckled at her expression as they rode the flow of water before he suddenly turned and surfed by.

Wendi ducked under something that he threw at her face and laughed. "Ha! You missed!"

"Did I?" He chuckled as he held her bikini top, causing her to look down and flush as she saw her large breasts sway freely. "Heh, you're pretty perky, makes me wish for a camera." He laughed as he pocketed her top, like a prize.

Wendi covered her chest with one arm as she glared at him. It was one thing to be naked in public. It was another thing to get stripped in public by someone she didn't like. "You..." She growled slightly. It wasn't in her nature to get angry, at least not too angry, she was more like Sein, she preferred having fun, laughing and being crazy to being angry like Nove or Tre did when they fought. "JERK!"

Surfer Joe's eyes widened as Wendi snapped her wrist out, a blue-white ball snapped out from the palm of her hand, missing him by millimeters, but it didn't miss the wave he was on.

(---)

"WOAH! Would you look at that!" Sein called out from the announcer's booth. "The wave just turned to ice!"

"How'd that happen?" Cinque commented, dumbstruck. "It's hot enough outside to melt ice cream in three minutes."

Ranma stared, before chuckling softly for a few moments before falling back into Sette, who was right behind him, before laughing, getting Akane and Nabiki's attentions. "I...I can't believe it! She's a natural!" Everyone looked at him in confusion as he continued to laugh.

What made him laugh the most was the fact he had only frozen the wave once against Wendi.

He'd tell the others when he finally calmed down.

(---)

"WOAH!" Surfer Joe cried out as he fell down, headfirst into the ice, his board sunk into the ice next to him as Wendi, on her "board" surfed up to him, grabbed her top from his pocket, put her top on and grabbed his board.

"See you at the finish line." She commented as she took off, leaving him to groan in dismay as he stared at her retreating ass.

(---)

"And your winner! Wendi!" Sein and Nove called out at the same time as the redhead stood at the edge of the beach grinning and laughing proudly.

Wendi giggled softly as her sisters came up to her to congratulate her. "You were right." She grinned at Ranma. "He wasn't as bad as you were."

Laughing, Ranma nodded. "Told you." He chuckled and looked at the rest of the cyborgs. "Well, it's not like we have much to do..." He trailed off as some of the girls started to get some downcast expressions. "But, Wendi, I was impressed with the ice powers you manifested."

The redhead rubbed the back of her head, embarrassed at the praise. "I don't know where it came form, just... Came to me."

Ranma smirked at that. "Well, I think a few more days here won't hurt, and Wendi, I'm going to work with you so that you can control it better."

The redhead groaned in dismay as Nabiki shook her head and patted Akane's shoulder.

"What?"

"This is why so many people don't learn new things, he forces us to perfect it before he'll let us go." Oh well, it would do Wendi some good.

Nabiki was curious just how interesting things were going to get with Wendi able to manipulate ice in the future. Though she was slightly more concerned what kind of combat monster he could turn Otto and Tre into with their powers.

* * *

Omake 1: (Sorry to any Canadians reading this, I had to.)

Dieci looked at Ranma as he ate and just had to know. "What's this sticky stuff?"

"Maple syrup."

"...Can we get more?"

Ranma looked at her hopeful face and groaned softly. "You're not Canadian, are you?" A moment later his head jerked as Nabiki slapped the back of his skull. "What?"

"Bad joke."

Omake 2: (Courtesy of Sect)

Wendi frowned as she looked at the tall blond man. "So, you had someone who wanted to go against me, right, Joe?" she asked, crossing her arms underneath her breasts, covered in a light blue bikini top that matched her boy shorts. Behind her, the rest of her family stood behind her, either paying attention to the conversation or playing in the sand.

To his credit, the blond surfer, clad in the same green trunks and shades that he wore the last time they met didn't tarry his eyes long on the movements caused by Wendi's actions. "That's 'Surfer Joe', li'l grommet. But yeah, I got your opponent right here," he replied, stepping to the side revealing a short, blond haired, blue eyed girl wearing a grey short john wetsuit, leaving her calves and entire arms bare and fitting nicely to her curves. "This here gidget is Helga Van Dyke, my li'l cute protege." The girl smiled wildly, showing off white teeth, while looking up and down the Cyborg surfer.

"Good morning. I'm REALLY excited to go up against someone who beat my teacher," she said, with a thick Swedish accent. "A cute someone," she continued, still scanning the Cyborg's body. "A cute someone with a nice body," she added, very unnecessarily.

"Riiiight..." Wendi drawled, really not wanting her to continue to creep her out.

"Van Dyke..." Ranma mused, before snapping his fingers. "You don't mean Fred Van Dyke, legendary surfer?"

"Nah, no relation," Surfer Joe replied for her. "In any case, the ref is here," everyone noticed her, since she seemed to be wearing a string bikini bathing suit again, "so you kids get ready." All of the spectators not drawn to the referee's thong clad body retreated to the sands near the announcer's table.

"Okay, you both got your boards, wait, you don't... oh, there it is. Anyways, you know the rules, but I have to copy and paste for everyone just tuning in." The referee coughed, ignoring the fanboys drawn to the bouncing. "The two of you surf out, and grab a large enough wave to surf on. Use anything to knock your opponent off their board without getting knocked off yourself. First one to get to shore and is still on their board wins, unless the other gives up or is unable to surf any more. Any questions? No? Good," she said, ignoring any potential requests for information. "Now, let's wait for the announcer to start up..."

A few moments passed before the ref's eye began twitching. "Hey! Announcer guy!"

"I'm not doing it!" a faint voice shouted from the announcer's booth! "I'll just get beat up again!"

"Stop complaining and get in the damn booth!"

With a heavy and defeated sigh, the announcer's voice crackled over the PA system. "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to oh no, what are you doing, stop that," the voice cried out in a monotone before being cut off. A few moments passed before a new voice sounded off.

"Good morning, and welcome to the show! This is your hostess, Sein! And returning with me is Wendi's cute girl, Nove..."

"I'm not her girl!"

"... And little big sister Cinque."

"Hello everyone. It's good to be back."

"Today is another Anything Goes Surfing duel, between returning champion Wendi Saotome," she paused for applause from the Saotomes plus many guys rooting for the hot girl in the swimsuit, "and for the first time here, the student of reigning loser, Surfer Joe... Helga Van Dyke!" Again, many guys rooting for the hot girl in the wetsuit.

The referee sighed, then turned back to the two surfers. "All right, on your marks... get set... and go!" The two girls pounced onto the water and paddled out to the point where they could catch the best waves.

As the two girls began to ride a wave, Ranma glanced over at the American surfer. "So, is your 'protege' any better than you are, Joe?"

"Hmph, that's 'Surfer Joe', dude," he snorted, before adopting a serious look. "Truth be told, though, in terms of ability... I'm actually better than her."

Ranma looked at him with disbelief. "Seriously. Then why bother?" Surfer Joe adopted a sharklike grin.

"Well, there's other factors about this contest that puts her at an edge above myself."

Ranma could only blink. "'Other factors'? Like what?" Just then, the audience heard a loud ripping sound, a startled cry from Wendi, and increased cheers from hormonally charged men.

"Ah, the 'Hang Twelve' technique," Surfer Joe mused, as Ranma followed his gaze, beginning to develop a tick in his eye. "The thing is, Helga is a hundred times more perverted than I. And when she's up against a pretty girl, well, her determination to dominate rises a hundred fold."

The ancient looper facepalmed. "Dear gods... you don't mean that she's a Super Pervert?" he groaned. Surfer Joe could only nod sagely, ignoring the squeaks of protest out on the waves, a perverse laugh following, increasing cheers, and a redhead yelling from the announcer's booth.

"You could say that, dude. It was her one saving grace back when she was just a kook. Why, just a few months ago she took on three other girls in Australia; by the time they came out of the tube, all three of them were already bare and ravished. Righteous, really," the veteran surfer reminisced with a drooling grin. The adoptive father of the Cyborgs could only sigh.

"Well, excuse me, Joe, while I go protect Wendi's virtue," he muttered, preparing to go out into the surf. A finger tapping on his shoulder and a shout of "SCREW THIS! **AIRLINER!**" halted him, though.

His tall, pink haired "daughter" pointed to the blue sea. "Nove's already on that, Dad."

"Hey you! Hands off!" a watery explosion erupted from the surfers.

"Nove! You do care!" loud, exaggerated smooches were heard.

"H-hey! Don't do that! And put clothes on!"

"Oooh... two pretties! Here I come!"

"**BUG OFF!**"

Sein's voice came on over the P.A. "Well, it looks like Helga's being awarded the win, on account of disqualification of Wendi for interference by a non participant. Jeez, what a rip off!"

(---)

"Right, right, that's enough of that." Hayate Yagami sat behind a desk, brown TSAB uniform and beret donned, with a thick, obviously false mustache attached above her lip. "This omake's gone far enough. Started off as a pleasant day on the beach, a surfing rematch. Got rather promising with the lesbian surfer, but, honestly, it's now too much. An unskilled surfer who uses special techniques on random buxom Australians? Facing off against a girl who can make boards out of water molecules?

"Besides, the least they could have done was actually show the goodies being bared." A frown could be seen on the Lieutenant Colonel's mustachioed face. "What's the point if all of the wonderful yuri skinship isn't going to be shown except for semi humorous snips of conversation that only tease at the unseen action. Why, if I were there, I would-"

"Hayate?" Fate's voice called out. Hayate frantically yanked the mustache off her face, wincing at the glue pulling at her skin, and hid it in her desk. "Hayate, I have the... what were you doing?" the blonde asked suspiciously.

"Oh..." the pervy commander wheedled. "Nothing, really. Just sitting here, minding my own business." Fate frowned at her, and glanced at a nearby DVD box.

"Hayate... were you watching Wendi's surfing competition again? Also... are you wearing a skirt under that desk?"

"... Yes." The enforcer's stare darkened.

"Yes... to what?"

"Well it's not like I have to explain myself to you!" the brunette explained exasperatedly, throwing her hands in the air. "It's my office," she lectured, standing up and stalked around her desk, uniform jacket barely covering her panty clad derierre, "and I could go about, walking around all funny like," illustrating her point with a hopping half step on her left foot followed by a sweeping lunge on her right, "all I want!"

Fate could only sigh. "Hayate," she admonished, moving towards her long time friend, two hops on her right foot diagonally, a half step slide backwards, repeated with the left foot, "just because you have an ungodly amount of personal and political power doesn't mean that you can abuse it for your amusement." She moved behind her thoughtful friend (a curving set of pirouettes, rather difficult in heels) and placed her hands on her shoulders.

"I know..." Hayate mumbled, feeling ashamed of herself, and rather drafty. "It's just... I never wanted this job." Fate blinked.

"... Seriously? Because, you know, you kind of **created** this unit..."

"Yes, I know that, but what I **really** wanted to be was-"

(---)

Major Genya sat behind a desk, looking as stern as ever. "The previous scene, which deemed the scene before that to be 'too silly', has now been judged to be 'too silly', not to mention ripping off on too many Python skits. All those responsible have now been sacked."

"They've bin sint back tu Sveden," the møøse sitting beside him remarked.

(---)

-- _The writers of this omake apologize for the inconvenience. The ones responsible for the sacking of the ones who sacked the ones who've been sacked have also been sacked._ --

* * *

Cinque got kidnapped to the water, I couldn't help it. Also couldn't help the naked Tre scene.

Yeah, I'm playing up Otto looking like a boy. I like the thought.

Is it wrong that I imagine Cinque as the best dart player ever?


	6. Numbers in Nerima V

Time Loops

Numbers in Nerima

Chapter 5

I own nothing. This is for fun, not profit. If I was making a profit, I wouldn't need to work for a living.

* * *

Ranma looked around the ballroom with all the elegantly dressed people and shook his head. What the heck was going on here? Considering he couldn't really make out anyone's faces he figured that he was either in the Silver Millennium, or was dreaming. Seeing the floating cats dancing with three-headed dogs on the ceiling, he was tempted to think of the latter.

"Ah, Mr. Saotome." A familiar voice spoke up to his right, causing him to turn and raise an eyebrow at the blond idiot in an orange tuxedo. Seriously, who the hell made a tuxedo out of orange? "I trust that you're taking a liking to our... Accommodations."

Suddenly the surroundings around him shifted and blurred and he found himself on a chair, chains wrapped around him as he looked at the blond idiot, this time in an orange lab coat, grinning at him. "Okay, seriously, Naruto, lose the orange."

"NEVER!" He screamed to the heavens while shaking his fist dramatically. "I shall prove to you that orange is far superior to anything you know of!"

"Even sex?" Ranma asked with a raised eyebrow.

Naruto sputtered for a moment before the walls were blown open and Sakura, _what the hell is she doing here?!_ Ranma thought as the pink haired monster flew past him and through another wall.

The two looked into the smoking hole as a short-brown-haired, boyish-looking person stepped through, dusting the sleeves of the jacket they were wearing.

"Otto?" Ranma blinked a few times.

She smirked at him. "Call me... Saotome... Otto Saotome."

Ranma gasped awake with a jerk and sat up, or tried to as Tre rested her head on his lap and Uno had her arms wrapped around his shoulders while snuggling to his side. "No more late night parties while watching Bond films." He muttered to himself.

"Bad dream?" Nabiki asked as she looked around the darkened entertainment room that they were in. "I don't care how much Washu taught you, this is still impossible." It had been a small hall closet before Ranma decided to play "mad scientist" with it.

"You'd be surprised how easy it is to make a room large enough for a DDR party when you fold and bend space around you." He chuckled softly. "Besides, Washu does it on a grander scale, I just used it for a small room."

Nabiki looked around and sweat-dropped. "Small? This is at least as large as the school gym."

He shrugged. "Hey, if we want to have another failed wedding, this place is less likely to fall apart than the dojo." That got a laugh from Nabiki as she looked around the room and the various large seats and small couches that were strewn out in front of a large, flat-screen television. "You really should stop stealing from other universes."

"Heh, they won't miss a television a few chairs, sofas and the like." He chuckled. "Besides, I paid for them."

Nabiki shook her head and looked at the others in the room. Wendi was snuggling up to Nove's side as the shorter redhead rested her head on Wendi's head, both seemingly exhausted. Cinque was strewn across both of their laps as she slept there. Across from them, Otto and Deed slept cuddled against each other. Sette slept on a recliner in the corner, covered in a red blanket as she rested. "Where's Sein and Dieci?"

"Not sure..." Ranma frowned a bit but blinked as the two stepped back into the room.

Sein rubbed her eyes and stumbled to the large bean bag in the middle of the room before flopping on it, grabbing the nearby discarded blanket and covered herself up, falling back asleep.

Dieci sighed as she looked at Ranma and Nabiki. "...We had to use the bathroom." She flushed slightly as the two chuckled. "Um... How are things with my cannon going?"

"Pretty good." Ranma smiled at her. "Only lost ten shadow clones to random explosions."

The long-haired girl sweat-dropped. "You're... Taking that well."

Nabiki rolled her eyes as she grabbed a chair on wheels. "I doubt that he lost that many clones to your gun, Dieci." When she blinked a few times, Nabiki shook her head. "Look, he once built the Death Star from scratch in this universe just to see if he could. When it exploded, he took out all of Oceania with it." Seeing Dieci look at her blankly, she sighed. "You'll have to sit down and watch the Star Wars movies sometime."

"...Movies?" The brown-haired girl blinked a few times. "The Death Star is from a movie?" Of course it would be, it would have to be.

"In this universe it is." Ranma explained to her. "There is a universe where the Death Star actually exists." He sighed as Uno mumbled something in her sleep and squeezed his body tighter. "I've been to that universe a few times, so I know how the thing is made." He chuckled softly. "Anakin once used the Borg to build a Death Star just to prove to Kirk that he could."

"I... See?" Dieci blinked a few times as Nabiki rolled her eyes.

"Don't worry, you'll see more crazy things out there when you start looping. Just don't try to see what happens if you combine the All-Spark with the Death Star. The results... They aren't pretty." Nabiki chuckled as she remembered the results of what happened after that. After all, it had resulted in one of her earlier fused loops.

"Oh..." The confused cyborg looked at Ranma, who sighed softly.

"Don't worry about it. I've been looping for so long that it's rather insane. Most of my memories are swiss-cheese when it comes to smaller things." Ranma looked at Dieci and his eyes, to her, looked so old that she felt rather small and insignificant. His eyes seemed like he had seen the secrets of the universe, had cracked them apart, had figured everything in reality out and found that he knew nothing. All of that, she saw in an instant.

A moment later, the feeling was gone and all she saw was tired, humorous eyes looking at her. "Ah... Sorry." Dieci chuckled and rubbed the back of her head.

"Don't worry about it." Ranma smirked at her.

(---)

Mornings in Nerima for most of the people around the Tendo Dojo had come to a routine. Most of the time it was being woken up by yells, crashes, growls, explosions that went off in the Tendo yard. There was often times laughter and cries of surprise or loud splashes of water. It generally ended as people were settling down for breakfast. Until the week everyone was at the beach, most of Nerima had gotten rid of their alarm clocks. They didn't need them much anymore. Thankfully for the past three days, the Tendo house was lively again and no one needed alarm clocks.

So when there was an insanely large explosion and several windows, glass objects, cracked walls and broken streets, most people actually did pay attention.

After all, most of them had never had their houses front walls either cave in or be blown away by an object going so fast that it broke the sound barrier several times over while creating a gigantic destructive pressure wave around it while doing so.

In the Tendo yard, Ranma, Cinque, Sette, Nove and Genma, in his human form this time, stared stupidly at the broken wall, the street and the buildings, trees, fences and light posts that were all destroyed. "...It's like some sort of giant ball ran through there." Nove commented as Ranma shook that off and followed the path of destruction.

When he and the others got to the end, Tre was laying face-down in a crater, not moving. Frowning, he nudged her shoulder, getting a groan from the purple-haired cyborg. "Tre?"

"I cnt mv." She said, her voice muffled as Ranma rolled her over, revealing her shirt, pants, bra and panties all torn up and in tatters on her front. Her face, arms, legs and the front of her torso were cut up and bleeding from hundreds of shallow cuts.

"...Ouch." Ranma muttered and shook his head before putting a hand over her torso. A soft light appeared in his palms and she groaned slightly, squirming until the marks over her skin slowly faded and disappeared.

"What the heck..?" Genma took a step back, wondering what Ranma was doing.

"Healing technique." Ranma rolled his eyes. It was rather amazing how easy it was to use minor healing spells and convert it to other types of energies. Really, other than extremely potent healing spells and abilities, most all healing magic and techniques were exactly the same. Using Ki to heal was really the same as using Reikai, magic or Chakra with some minor tweaks.

"Can't do that again." Tre moaned as she sat up, her upper clothing finally giving up and falling apart, leaving her topless in a crater. She looked at Genma, who was ogling her. "...Can I kill him?" She asked while covering her naked breasts with her arms, blushing and frowning while looking away.

Ranma rubbed his head and pulled out a large robe and wrapped it around her shoulders. "Knock it off, Genma." Really, he was acting like he had never seen a pair of breasts before. Then again, Tre had a rather large chest, that might have had something to do with it.

Nodding her thanks, Tre stood up, only to have her pants and panties tear apart and fall to the ground in tatters. "...I liked those pants too." She muttered as she tightened her robe and made her way back to the house.

Ranma looked at the destruction and laughed at it. "Well, at least I don't have to clean it up." He said as he followed Tre back to the Tendo home, but not before kicking Genma for being an open pervert.

Cinque shook her head and looked at Nove and Sette. "Don't develop a technique that causes your clothes to disintegrate as a result."

When they got back to the house, Wendi and Sein were looking at the path of destruction curiously. "Tre-nee..." Wendi waved the taller cyborg down. "What happened?"

"I was finally able to use Mach Impulse." Tre muttered and walked into the house. "I'm starving." She grumbled as she went into the house and to her room. Even if she was starving, she wanted to at least wear a pair of underwear under the robe.

The last thing she wanted was someone looking down when she was wearing nothing but a robe on and get a free show.

Blinking, Sein turned to the others as they walked into the yard. "...Does this happen all the time?"

"More than you know." Ranma smirked at her and looked at the destruction sighing. "Oh well..." He'd get some clones to clean it up later. "Tre's right, we should eat."

Later at the table, Nove looked at Tre seriously. "Just what the heck happened out there? You suddenly glowed and shot off like a cannon ball."

Wincing as she recalled the pain she felt from crashing into the ground like she had, Tre shook her head. "Finally was able to use Mach Impulse, the results weren't good." She grumbled as she practically wolfed down the food.

"Meaning she managed to develop the raw technique but hasn't refined it yet." Ranma had a smirk on his face and a tone of voice that had Wendi shuddering and jumping into Nove's lap, shrieking in fear. "It wasn't that bad." He deadpanned at her. Honestly, she hadn't even begun to go through his real training methods and this was how she was reacting?

"Ice doesn't freeze that way." Wendi murmured as she shook on Nove's lap, who sighed and dislodged herself from the other redhead, pushing Wendi off of her lap.

"Anyway... What's with the weird energy you use?" When Ranma looked at her with a raised eyebrow, she clarified, "it's like magic, but... Not... I don't know... It's like... A 44 megahertz frequency while magic is more like a 55 megahertz frequency." Nove's face felt flush at the looks she was getting. "It's the closest thing I could think of!" She waved her arms in front of her rapidly to get them to stop with the weird or teasing looks.

"Actually, I was thinking the same thing." Cinque looked at Ranma through her one good eye. Her eye-patch was off and to the side, allowing the slightly confused and concerned look on her face to be completely seen. "It's nothing like anything that I've ever seen, so I was a bit curious."

"It's chi." Ranma said with a shrug, but he was amused by the two. "I'm honestly surprised that you didn't call it magic though." Most people of Mid-Childa just assumed it was magic no matter what. It had taken a long while for the Wolkenritter to stop calling it magic and they KNEW it wasn't magic.

Nove chuckled at that, glad that people weren't calling her stupid or staring at her fully. "Well, it was like magic, but there was something that felt off. I thought it was some sort of IS at first, but... That girl who attacked me, she used the same thing as you did."

Idly wondering what Shampoo was up to, Ranma nodded at Nove. "Yeah, it's chi. It's the basic life energy every living thing has."

"...If everyone has it, does that mean..." Nove began as Ranma shook his head.

"No. It's a pain in the ass to learn how to use properly anyway. Most people, if they can use it, just use it to strengthen and enhance their bodies, nothing more." Plus it generally took most of ones life time to learn how to use beyond simple body enhancing. "It's not like magic, where if you have it, you can use it. Though, magic and chi are similar in the fact that everyone has varying amounts and varying levels of ability when it comes to what they can do." Ranma tapped his chin a few times.

"Son... Magic?" Genma looked a little confused before getting splashed in the face with cold water, turning him into a panda. "Growf?"

"You turn into a panda with a splash of cold water and magic confuses you?" Ranma rolled his eyes as the panda grumbled and settled down. "Still..." He looked at Nove and Cinque, smiling at them. "Great job. You two didn't call it magic the first chance you got."

Nove and Cinque both felt their faces flushing, but they had pleased looks on their faces.

(---)

Watching Shampoo train, Cologne idly smoked on a pipe and wondered about a few things. Mostly she wondered about the girl's seeming rivalry with that redheaded girl, Nove. There was more to that girl than she was seeing. Not only that, the redhead's older sister, Tre wasn't too skilled, but she was strong and fast, which wasn't too unusual, she had fought against the Musk before, those warriors were either stronger or faster than any human could possibly be in one life time. The others were also a mystery, but they all had signs of training, or at least experience of some sort, in their walk. Some had more than others, of course, but there wasn't much that could be done about that. "Really, granddaughter, are you that hard-up that you can't concentrate?" She enjoyed the flushed, angry look on her face from that. If Shampoo couldn't get her emotions in order, well... Cologne sighed softly and shook her head. While she was grateful that Shampoo had gotten a new drive to train and better herself, she could see that the girl wasn't improving very quickly.

"Shampoo..." Cologne shook her head, sighing. "That's enough, you're just wearing yourself out."

"Not..." She panted softly. "Done yet."

Shaking her head, Cologne had to wonder what it was about pride, arrogance, anger and frustration that kept people from truly reaching their full potential. "Yes, yes you are. You've trained non-stop for the past few days, you're not getting any better right now."

Shampoo frowned at that, unsure why Cologne was so stubborn about all of this. "I won't lose to her again!" She explained, clenching a fist tightly. "I just need to figure out how to beat that attack of hers." She frowned as she spoke in Chinese.

"Where on Earth am I now?!" A male voice yelled suddenly, getting both Amazons attention. "I swear! I was in Paris a few minutes ago." Both Amazons sweat-dropped as a boy with a spotted bandanna on his forehead walked into the clearing. They didn't know where this "Paris" was, well, Shampoo didn't, Cologne had a vague idea of it being on an entirely different continent, but that was it.

"You aren't near this Paris, boy..." Cologne told him, getting a startled jump from Ryoga as he spun around and looked at the two stupidly. "You're in a construction lot in Nerima."

"Really?" Ryoga blinked, rubbing the back of his head. "That would explain why everyone's speaking Japanese, but why is it only a twenty minute walk from here to Paris?"

Shampoo sweat-dropped heavily, so heavily in fact that she fell over. "Stupid, this Japan, not Paris."

"But! I swear! I was just in Paris! I was by the Eiffel Tower, people were speaking French, well, there were some Japanese and English in there, but I thought they were tourists."

Holding up a hand and pointing behind her, Cologne sighed at him. "Was that the tower you were at?"

"Huh?" Ryoga looked up and blinked, nodding. "Yeah! Wow, I didn't know that Paris was near Nerima." He got a groan from both women in response.

"Shampoo think that he dumber than Mousse." The purple-haired girl grumbled as she sighed heavily.

(---)

Walking around the city, Nove could only sigh softly. Honestly, with the way things were here, she wasn't sure if she wanted to go back to Mid-Childa again. The thought of not always being awake for the loops and being a criminal really didn't sit well with her. Really, this world was peaceful, if a little strange. She blinked as a knife suddenly embedded itself in the sidewalk in front of her. "Eh?" She looked up and blinked as she saw some guy in long white robes and black pants stand on the top of the telephone pole, his incredibly long hair, seriously, it rivaled Sette, Dieci and Cinque's hair lengths, fluttered in the wind and his eyes were closed at that moment. Nove could feel her face heat up slightly. He had a pretty face at least.

"So, there you are." The boy intoned as he jumped down to land lightly on his feet. "I shall make you pay for taking Shampoo's honor!" He cried out while pointing at a telephone pole that he had just jumped off of.

"Uh... that crazy purple-haired girl?" Nove blinked, getting the boy to turn towards her voice and pull out of his sleeves... "...Those are some thick glasses."

Putting the glasses on his face, he squinted and leaned forward. "Huh, you cut your hair. Never-mind that!" He jumped back and pulled out a pair of broadswords. "Prepare to die!"

"What is with people trying to kill me lately?" Nove muttered as she ducked under the slice towards her head and twisted to the side of his follow-up sword thrust.

"Karma for kidnapping Vivio?" Nove turned to see Sein and Dieci there, watching her, the shorter-haired cyborg grinned at her. "That and all the pranks we pulled back then."

"Then why aren't, eek!" Nove had to jump over some chains with sharp points that nearly skewered her, "why aren't you dealing with this then?"

Sein shrugged and turned to Dieci, who scratched her head. "...Maybe people hate redheads around here?" Both Nove and Sein looked at Dieci, who shrugged. "What? It seems like everyone gets irrationally angry at Nove for some stupid reason."

Nove blinked as her back touched a brick wall. "Well, this sucks." She muttered and tensed her legs, preparing to leap out of the way of his next attack.

"Fist of the White Swan!" The boy cried out as his hands blurred, in that instant, Nove, Sein and Dieci's faces all turned green and Nove froze, getting clocked upside the head and sent tumbling to the ground.

"EWWWW!" All three girls cried out as Nove quickly scrambled away from the crazy person.

"Nove, you okay?" Sein asked, looking at her in concern.

"Eww! I need a bath. One in acid maybe!" Nove gagged as she shuddered, looking around for some water to wash her face with.

"Hey!" Dieci frowned at the boy, who was smirking at them. "Why don't you at least use something more normal!"

The boy blinked at her. "...What's wrong with "Fist of the White Swan"?" As far as he knew it was a perfectly legitimate technique, albeit it was unorthodox, but that was the point of his style.

"YOU HIT ME IN THE FACE WITH A DUCK-SHAPED TRAINING POTTY!" Nove screamed at him.

He smirked at them. "I, Mousse of the Chinese Amazons, am a master of black magic and hidden weapons." Flicking his wrists to the side, he held four knives in each hand, between each of his fingers.

Sein blinked a few times as she saw him do that. "Hey, Cinque would just _love_ to know how you did that." The shortest cyborg might not have said anything, but Sein had once lifted that long coat of hers and it was heavy as hell, mostly because of all the heavy knives that it held.

Mousse said nothing and threw the knives at them, missing them by more than a good foot and causing them to dig into the walls and sidewalks around them. "Now, for stealing my Shampoo's honor, die!" Jumping into the air, he pulled out more chains, these ones had spiked balls on the end and threw them down, aiming at Nove. It was too bad about Sein and Dieci, but that was the price to pay for being in his way.

Sein just dropped through the ground and Dieci jumped back while Nove jumped straight up and glared at the nearly blind idiot. "You tried to hurt my sisters!" She yelled at him.

The next thing Mousse knew was a pair of feet crashing into this throat and chest, before he was driven into the ground so hard that all the windows around them rattled and shook.

"And stay down!" Nove snarled at him, raising her foot to stomp on him again before Sein grabbed her from behind and pulled her away. "Lemme go! He tried to hurt you! Lemme go!"

"Calm down, we're okay, Nove." Sein said softly to her, smiling as she slowly relaxed. "I don't think it would be a good idea to kill someone."

"Why not? They keep trying to kill me." Though Nove could feel the anger leaving her body, she didn't have much will to keep hurting the jerk, she just wanted to know why Sein wouldn't let her finish him off.

"Ah..." Sein didn't have a comeback for that.

"Would you want to be like them? Jerks that kill for no reason?" Dieci asked her shorter sister as she walked up to the pair. "Even when we were criminals, Nove, you never would have killed someone without a really good reason."

Sighing, Nove slumped and nodded. Dieci was right, after all. "Thanks."

Both Sein and Dieci smiled at her as she was freed from Sein's grasp. "Come on, sis, let's get some ice cream or something." At least they could forget the horrible experience that way. "...And get your face washed up."

"Ewww! I almost forgot!" Nove shrieked as the trio left the fallen Amazon in the dirt.

Mousse groaned as he slowly sat up a little bit later and rubbed his throat. "She kicks like a mule." He muttered, before coughing and getting up, stumbling off. He needed a place to sit, rest and recover after all of this.

(---)

Sette blinked as she saw Ryoga walking around, seemingly lost. She was about get his attention when a bus drove between them for a few moments. When the bus passed, Ryoga was gone, leaving the tall pinkette looking on in confusion. "...Where'd he go?"

Unseen to Sette, there had been an open manhole cover which he had walked over, causing Ryoga to fall down and into the sewers, getting soaked and triggering his curse. "Bwee!" The little piglet cried out helplessly as it was swept away from the sudden rush of water that came from further up in the sewers.

(---)

"Curse this 54-year-old body and it's need to go to the bathroom every four hours!" A male voice was heard from a building.

"I told the professor that messing with time travel was dangerous."

"Shut up, Zoidberg."

"Aww..."

(---)

Sette just shrugged and walked off, wondering what she was going to do for the rest of the day. Blinking, she thought she heard someone call out to her, before a there was a lighting up of green light in the area and a rumbling of a motorcycle. "Hello, Otto."

The boyish girl smiled at her taller sister. "What's up, Sette?"

The taller girl shrugged as she looked at Otto. "Nothing much, honestly. Saw Ryoga, but he went and teleported away before I could say anything." She tapped her chin, blinking a few times. "Been using your IS lately?"

Otto blinking and slowly shook her head. "No... Why do you ask?"

"No reason, I just thought the area lit up in green for a moment." Sette did think it was weird though, who else had glowing green energy beams of doom anyway?

(---)

In a tree, several blocks away, a severely burned and beaten up Kuno Tatewaki groaned and tried to get up. Well, okay, he wasn't beaten up, and his clothes were only slightly singed, it was the fact that he had landed on the tree-branch a bit too perfectly for his own tastes. "Mine... Jewels... Do not go crunch that way..." He said in a high squeaky voice as his body turned to the side before falling straight down and landing on his head. At least nothing major was injured, or so people who disliked him would have you believe.

But that was something for another time.

(---)

A couple hours later, after getting out of the sewers, a while in the public baths, and a new change of clothes, Ryoga found himself wandering around Nerima again, taking in the sights and wondering about the offer that the old woman, if she could be called a woman, had given him.

Flashback...

_"Well, boy, I'd be willing to train you. I can teach you a technique that will make you nearly unbeatable." She smiled at him in such a way that he just shuddered._

_"No thanks. I'll just be going now." He said as he turned around and started to walk out of the area and to Nerima, or maybe to Okinawa, no one was sure with a Hibiki. Unless their name was Dan, but no one talked about Dan._

_"That's fine, if you change your mind, I'll be right here." She turned away for a moment, to say something to Shampoo in Chinese and turned back to Ryoga, but he was long gone, leaving a blinking Amazon, who shrugged and went back to Shampoo._

End Flashback...

"I still wonder how Ranma does that." A female voice spoke up, catching Ryoga's attention. Anyone speaking of his hated rival, or at least he thought Ranma was his rival, but Ranma had never been able to make him fall to the ground so easily before, at least not in middle school, would catch his attention easily.

"Not sure, Tre-nee." A shorter girl, with long brown hair, was shrugging as she walked next to a tall, short purple-haired woman. "I do like what he did to my blades though."

The taller woman smirked at her. "You mean being able to channel your magic better, Deed?"

"Of course."

"It's you!" Ryoga yelled and pointed at Tre, his eyes were wide, before he narrowed them. "I remember you! You were the one running around naked that night!"

Tre blinked in disbelief, mostly because she honestly didn't know who the babbling idiot was. "Uh... What?"

Ryoga glared and curled his hands into fists. "You know what I'm talking about! Don't try to deny it!" He yelled as he grabbed at his bandannas and pulled four off of his head, getting a blink from the two cyborgs.

"How many of those things do you have?" Deed asked, wondering how he did that. "Sette would just love to know how you did that."

Snapping his wrist down, the soft fabric suddenly stiffened as if it was hard wood or metal, before Ryoga snapped his arm out, throwing the bandannas as though they were spinning shurikens or even buzz-saws.

(---)

"What's wrong boss?" A clone suddenly spoke up as Ranma stiffened and narrowed his eyes.

"Not sure, but something feels... Off..." He muttered, before shaking his head. "Not sure what it is, but anyway, are we almost done with this?"

The clone smirked as he held up Dieci's cannon. "Almost. Just have to finish the overdrive mode for this thing, _then_ we'll have some fun with it." The clone chuckled, almost darkly and gleefully.

"...You've been spending too much time around Brianna, haven't you?" Ranma deadpanned as the clone smirked at him.

"Hey, I love big guns, explosions and her big guns." There was a perverse look on his face as he giggled not unlike some other perverts in the multiverse.

"...I wonder if you're supposed to represent my libido or something."

Shrugging, the clone laughed at him. "Hey, it's not like you go out and try to get some lately anyway."

"Now I know how Naruto feels." Ranma muttered softly, wondering why he thought something was wrong in the world.

(---)

Her face was stuck in a stunned position as the wind blew around her. Both Ryoga and Tre were looking at her, both with eyes fairly wide, Ryoga more-so than Tre as Deed, in an almost comical slow motion, reached behind her and pulled at her hair, only to find out that it was only half as long as it had been before, and only on her right side. "...My hair..." She said slowly, realizing that her hair was long on one side and badly cut on the other side. "...You cut my hair..." She could still feel the strands as they fell out of her long hair. "...My hair..."

"Uh..." Ryoga felt bad that her hair got cut like that. He didn't know much about how girls saw their hair, but he knew that they spent a lot of time taking care of it. "Sorry?"

Deed blinked a few times, before focusing a gaze on him that could melt steel. "You..." She didn't know when she called for her weapons, but they materialized in her hands, lighting up. "Cut..." Her eyes, normally an incandescent red in color, though slightly darker than Wendi's own eyes, seemed to sharpen and burn in a blaze of anger. "My..." Tre wasn't sure if Deed could use fire-based magic, since it was rare that anyone had any sort of elemental magic from Mid-childa. No one was really sure why it was rare, but the common belief was that using devices to do calculations for magic was the reason. "HAIR!"

Tre couldn't help it, she winced reflexively as Deed laid into Ryoga. Honestly she was surprised that the blades weren't slicing him to ribbons, but that wasn't important as Ryoga screamed out in pain with each hit. There was a small explosion and Tre shook her head. "There goes a car... And some garbage cans... And a brick wall..." She commented before finally grabbing Deed in bear hug and lifting her up. She was grateful for her large size and immense strength, she needed every ounce of it as Deed struggled and thrashed to get back at the thoroughly beaten Lost Boy.

"Lemme at him! Lemme at him! He cut my hair! He needs to pay!"

"Remind me not to let you cut the lawn." Tre idly commented, before noticing the tears falling out of Deed's eyes. "...Deed?"

"...He cut my hair... I _liked_ my hair! Now it's ugly!" Deed suddenly slumped, before snapping her head up and glaring at the groaning, barely moving and heavily bruised Ryoga. "Lemme at him!"

"No! Let's... Let's go home... Maybe Ranma can fix this?" Like someone flipped a switch, Deed calmed down as Tre pulled her out of the area.

"You think dad can?" Deed asked, her voice full of hope. When Tre nodded, Deed slipped from her grasp and landed lightly on her feet. "Well then, what am I waiting around here for?!"

Tre could only watch, stupefied as Deed took off like a rocket, saying she'd be at the Tendo Dojo if anyone was looking for her. "...What is it about this place that causes such insanity?" Tre asked to no one in particular. "Then again..." She sighed, remembering the smiles that her sisters had, the way that they could just have fun and no one was trying to arrest or bother them for just being themselves. "...I'm getting soft." Tre shook her head, oddly not displeased by the notion.

Maybe they were becoming more human? Tre didn't know, but if it was a positive thing she really couldn't complain. Well, except for the insanity that seemed to be contagious, that she could do without.

Back where he was layed out, totally bruised and beaten, Ryoga groaned blinked, either he was seeing things, or someone was over him. "Pick him up, Shampoo." An old voice, why did it sound familiar to him? Why was the world moving? He wasn't sure anymore. He was grateful that he didn't have to think about it anymore as his vision darkened completely and he passed out, not that he'd ever mention that he was beaten by a girl. Nope. He had his pride after all. If anyone asked, he'd say that he let her beat him up.

(---)

"Tofu-Sensei, there's a Ms. Takeda here to see you." Uno called out to the back as the man in question came out, smiling at the taller woman, before turning to the smaller, older woman.

"Hello, is your ankle still giving you problems?"

"Just a small amount." The older woman admitted as she limped slightly.

"Well then, how about..." The door to the clinic opened up, getting both Tofu's and Uno's attention. In that instant two things happened, first was Ms. Takeda gaping and wishing that her ankle wasn't hurting and Tofu's glasses fogged over heavily as the person in question walked through the door. "Ka, Ka, Ka, Kasumi! How nice to see you here!" Tofu got all giggly and jittery as Kasumi smiled at him.

Uno, thankfully, had moved away and had pulled Ms. Takeda away from the two. She wasn't sure what was going on exactly with Dr. Tofu, but for some reason she didn't want to be near him right now.

Giggling, Kasumi smiled at the doctor. "You're so silly, I'm just returning this book I borrowed." The instant that she put the book in his hands, Tofu suddenly erupted into insane giggles, spun to the side and flung open the metal cabinet that was used to hold various white coats and supplies, along with a full-size skeleton model.

"Hee hee hee! Betty, what are you doing here?" Grabbing the skeleton, he started dancing, spinning around, and around, and through the door, destroying the wall, as Uno stared stupidly, the old woman thanked Uno for saving her life and Kasumi was just giggling at the antics of Dr. Tofu as he crashed through mail boxes, fences and telephone poles.

"...This happen often?" Uno asked, getting a surprised look from the older woman. "...What? I've never seen those two in the same room together."

"...You are most lucky." Ms. Takeda nodded sagely at her. "Would you be a dear and help me to the bus stop? Tofu-sensei won't be back until tomorrow at the earliest."

"Uh... Sure." For all her experiences, Uno really, really found that she felt like a fish out of water in this city. "...That was kind of funny."

"As long as he doesn't get his hands on you." Ms. Takeda chuckled softly as Uno nodded, before blinking as she looked back into the room. "Coming, Kasumi?"

"Hmm? Oh sure." She smiled and followed the tall Number. "What about work?"

Uno shrugged the question off. She'd just clock out later.

(---)

"Ranma?" Uno blinked as she walked into the kitchen shortly after taking Ms. Takeda home. "What are you doing?" Seeing Deed sitting on a chair with a white apron around her neck, looking miserable while Ranma had a pair of scissors in his hands as he held up her hair... "Oh..." Uno sat down on another chair in the kitchen. "So what's with the hair cut?"

"Ryoga cut my hair..." Deed said, pouting heavily as she heard the snip and cut through her hair. "Very badly, and now I need my hair cut to even it out." She seemed more upset as she said that. Ranma, surprisingly, was quiet as he cut her hair.

"Ouch..." Uno could understand, growing hair as long as Deed had was a pain normally, to have it cut off like that... "You did get him back, I hope."

"He's still alive..." Deed muttered as Ranma stepped out around from behind her. "Well?"

Smiling slightly, he materialized a few mirrors around Deed and had her look at them. "I think it turned out pretty good."

Uno couldn't help but agree as she saw Deed's hair, it was a lot shorter, just past her shoulders, as opposed to before where it was competing with Cinque's hair and reaching her butt. "Not bad."

Even so, Deed seemed to be even more upset as she looked at her new hair-style. "...You really did like your hair long, huh?" Ranma asked her, getting a sniffle and nod from the cyborg. Smiling softly, Ranma got behind her, his hands glowing as he gently grabbed the ends of her hair and pulling down and much to the shock of both Deed and Uno, the hair started to grow, going from her shoulders down the length of her body until it reached the length of her hair from before.

"...wow..." Both cyborgs could only stare in awe as Ranma smiled at them.

"How did you learn that?" Uno asked, Deed was too shocked at seeing her hair back to normal again, getting a shrug from Ranma in response.

"You'd be surprised what you can come up with when you're bored some days."

Uno was about to say something when Deed suddenly jumped off the chair and hugged Ranma tightly, tears leaking out of her eyes as she thanked him profusely. Seeing Ranma smile softly as he hugged her, the eldest of all the cyborgs was rather struck by how Ranma looked like a father at that moment. Idly, Uno wondered just why Ranma's eyes seemed to light up in happiness whenever Deed, Otto or Sette called him father, before shrugging it off, it was something to ask him about later.

(---)

Contrary to common thoughts among various loopers and anchors, Ranma could, in fact, sleep in a room with women and not have sex with them all the time. While those people would say that was impossible, that was just what was happening, minus the sleeping as Uno, who was under the covers in the futon that she, Tre and Ranma shared, just couldn't sleep. There was just too much on her mind. "You two asleep?"

"Not yet." Tre muttered, sighing softly while Ranma chuckled from his spot between them and turned his head to face her.

"What's wrong?" He was curious, there wasn't much to see in the dim lighting, but then again, his eyesight was so much better than most people's even a small speck of light allowed him to see almost perfectly. There were times he wasn't sure whether to thank Brianna and Britanny or curse them for their involvement in that.

"I've just been curious about something..." She said as she sat up, revealing that she was wearing a large t-shirt under the blankets as she turned to look at him. "You look at Deed, Otto and Sette differently than the others."

"Really?"

"Yeah..." Uno nodded and sighed softly. "It's not like you're playing favorites or anything, but your eyes seem happier whenever they call you "dad" as opposed to the rest of us. Why is that?" She might not have asked had she known more about the subject, it wasn't her fault that no one explained things to her. Really, it wasn't.

Both Uno and Tre looked at Ranma in confusion as he stood up and walked towards the window, opening it. "Sorry... I... I'm not going to answer that one, Uno." He sighed and looked at them. "I'm not mad, I just... I just don't like talking about that subject, that's all."

Both Uno and Tre were left with nothing but questions and confusion and really had no idea just what had happened exactly.

Retreating to the roof, Ranma sighed softly as he sat there, ignoring the wind as it blew against his body as he looked out at the buildings silently. There was a lot that he had forgotten over the years, mostly for his own sanity's sake, remembering every little detail that one went through over a countless amount of years could drive someone insane. There were just some things that stayed with a person though.

The loss of his first child was one of them.

As he sat there thinking, a lone tear fell from his face. He hadn't done anything wrong, hell, it had been so early in the loops that he had used them to try and fix everyone's problems. Actually having a child had been the happiest moment of his relatively short, at the time, life. His hands actually shook slightly as he held his hands up to look at them. He could still feel the weight, the way his child wiggled, squirmed, cried and even kicked at him.

Then the loop restarted.

Closing his eyes, he chuckled mirthlessly. "Not very funny." He muttered to himself, tears falling down his face, he didn't care if anyone saw him at that moment.

"Still can't forget, huh?" A familiar voice spoke up, causing him to nod as he turned to the person in question.

"You never had to deal with the memory, Nabiki." Ranma shook his head at her, his face tear-streaked at that moment. "My first child... I can never forget the sudden shock of losing my first child, Nabs."

"I wish you wouldn't call me that." The brown-haired girl muttered as she moved towards him and sat down within arm's reach of him. The two sat there in comfortable silence for hours, just watching the night as it went by slowly.

They would still be there, sitting silently and looking out at the day as the sun slowly crept over the horizon, signifying the start of a new day.

* * *

Man, what a way to end the chapter, huh?

Don't worry, future chapters are funnier, I promise.

And Deed is scary when she gets angry.

I'm TRYING to keep the story in line with Ranma 1/2 while changing a lot.


	7. Numbers in Nerima VI

Time Loops

Numbers in Nerima 6

Disclaimer: I own nothing, so, leave me alone!

* * *

Rubbing her eyes as she walked to the table, Dieci was understandably confused when she was yanked into one of the special rooms by Ranma, or at least one of his clones, since there were two others in the room with the one that pulled her into the room. "So, what's going on?" She asked as she looked around the room, more of a lab, now that she had more of a look to it.

"Well, we've spent a long time working on it, but I think you'll be pleased." One of the clones smiled as he looked at the brown-haired cyborg while gesturing to an item underneath a white towel. "Finally managed to get your cannon to work properly."

Another clone rolled his eyes at the giddy one. "What he means is that he finally managed to work the "Brianna Special" into this thing."

"Oh please! Like you don't like the Brianna Special!" The first one yelled back as he threw a wrench at the one who was bad-mouthing him.

"Knock it off before I knock you off." The second one yelled as he grabbed the wrench out of mid-air. "Better show Dieci what you did before I give her the BFG-9000 MKIII to use on you."

"YIPE!" The first one yelped and grabbed the sheet, pulling it free of the table. "Ta-da!"

"...A hand-gun?" Dieci was completely confused as she picked it up and studied it. "...What's with the scope?"

"Ah, based it on a version of Megatron that we met once." The one holding the sheet shrugged. "I will admit that Teana's "Cross Mirage" was also used as a basis of this model."

Dieci blinked a few times as the gun in her hand suddenly became two guns, one in each hand. "What the heck?"

"Like I said, stole the Cross Mirage design." Another shrug from the clone as the other one sighed and shook his head.

"The design was mostly used because it's easier to carry around than a gigantic freaking cannon all the time. Plus it's useful in a pinch."

"Oh..." Dieci blinked as the second gun disappeared. "What else can it do?"

"Ask for it to go to mode two."

"Mode... Two?" Dieci blinked as their was a whirring sound from the gun as the handle shifted outwards, the barrel increased in length before it shifted and gained a few pounds of mass as it became larger and filled her hands completely. "...A rifle?"

"Hand-cannon actually." Another clone pointed out to her. "Lighter than your normal cannon and packs enough of a punch that it can rattle someone's cage even with a shield up. Plus, it's more useful in case you need to move in a hurry or get caught in a fire fight with a crowd around you."

"My normal cannon? Is that... Mode three?" Dieci blinked as the small cannon became her normal-sized body-length cannon. "Wow..." She did like the fact it was quite a bit lighter than it had been before. The light blue coloring was very nice too.

"Go for the Overdrive mode!"

"Over...drive mode?" Dieci said slowly, before yelping as her cannon seemed to merge with her arm, though she could feel her fingers around some sort of trigger mechanism, as though it was a comfort to her. She blinked as her clothing seemed to glow and disappear, leaving her nude for an instant as clothes materialized around her chest and hips, followed by her arms and legs, boots that went up to her knees over the cloth on her legs. She blinked as her ears got covered by headphones and a visor went from one side of her face to the other, completely tinted green as various numerical data appeared. She could feel her shoulders getting covered and a short column extend backwards behind her, she then looked at her covered left arm, blinking as the cannon was a bit longer, there were four smaller guns lined up in a square pattern surrounded by circular binds as it gleamed in the light. "...whoa..." Dieci was rather stunned at that moment.

She was more stunned as she was surrounded by mirrors to see all sides of her body. Her outfit was a bright red, her upper chest was bare, though her breasts were covered, her abdomen and upper thighs were bare and as she looked at the mirror, she could see that the outer edges of her butt were visible to everyone looking. Her face warmed up a bit as she saw how... Exposed she was. "Um... This is revealing, isn't it?"

"Trust me, between the Gatling cannon and the missiles that's in your shoulder pads, no one's really going to be staring at your ass or chest." The snarky clone shrugged and rolled his eyes at the first one, who was grinning perversely. "Besides, this is still pretty modest, your butt's fine, I don't see why you're embarrassed by showing it off a bit."

"Um... Thank you." Dieci was still blushing pretty badly. Maybe she could modify this later? Still... "This is... Really cool."

"I suggest you take the time to get used to the various modes, otherwise you'll have trouble with them if you end up in any sort of combat." Dieci nodded as she moved around in the "overdrive mode" and found that she rather liked it, despite the awkward-looking Gatling cannon on her left arm.

"This... Could be fun." Dieci grinned slightly, getting a laugh from the giddy clone.

"Told you that the Brianna Special would do this to her."

"Yeah, yeah... Smart-ass." The other clone rolled his eyes at the attitude.

(-)

Nove looked at Dieci as she walked into the room. "What's up with you?"

Dieci has a faint blush on her face as she shrugged. "Um... Nothing much." That outfit had been very, very embarrassing to be in, she just hoped that she could at least add a few extra pieces of clothing to the armor of her overdrive form.

"So why are you moving funny?" Wendi asked curiously as she grabbed some food.

Dieci twitched and sat down at the table, ignoring the looks that her sisters were giving her. "Not going to talk about it." She muttered as she filled her plate. She didn't like the looks that she was getting and she really couldn't get them to stop looking at her. She was about to say something when an arrow embedded itself into the table in front of Ranma.

Soun's hair, as long as it was, suddenly poofed out in all directions, giving him the largest afro in the world. Interestingly enough, Cinque's hair suddenly stuck out at various angles as Ranma pulled the arrow out of the table and pulled the small letter that was stuck to the shaft. "Hmm... Looks like Ryoga's been training hard."

Deed growled at that name, how _dare_ that jerk chop her hair up like that? "Lemme at him! I need to hurt him!"

Tre sweat-dropped as she looked at her shorter, younger sister. "That was days ago, you can let it go, can't you?"

"So says someone who keeps trying and failing to master the Mach Impulse." Cinque replied calmly as she took a sip of her tea.

Turning and glaring at the shortest of her sisters, Tre nearly snarled at the silver-haired girl. "I'll get it one of these days!" It wasn't her fault, but she almost had it. She was able to not pass out or be laying face down after the technique ended last time at least. She still had a hard time moving afterwords though, so she really needed to work on it. But she was almost there, she could feel it.

Ranma shook his head and got up. "If you'll excuse me, I need to go have a talk with someone."

The others shrugged as he got up and left the room.

"...So Dieci." Sein asked after a few minutes.

"Hmm?" The brown-haired cyborg turned to her sister, wondering why she was suddenly grinning like that.

"Why WERE you walking funny when you came to the table?"

Dieci groaned and slumped, banging her head on the table. She had nearly forgotten just how much Sein liked to tease her and her other sisters.

(-)

"I was wondering when you'd show up." Ranma heard as he touched down in an abandoned warehouse. "Don't worry, I'm alone."

"I wouldn't worry even if you brought the entire Jusendo Valley with you." Ranma muttered as he looked at Cologne, who chuckled. "So, why not just send a letter in the mail like a normal person?"

"Bah! Mail service takes too long." The old woman waved her hand and smirked at him. "Anyway, I've been doing some training to an acquaintance of yours."

"Ryoga." He sighed when she nodded, that smirk of her was really beginning to get on his nerves. "What do you want?" He asked bruskly, his patience with the old crone running thin. "You and I both know that the training is only really good for toughening him up. Making the ground explode might cut up some of the girls a little bit, but they're born fighters." Okay, so maybe Sein and Uno weren't meant for straight-up combat, but that was fine.

"What makes you think that he wants to fight them?" She raised an eyebrow when he chuckled.

"Trust me, right now, Deed wants to hurt him for cutting her hair a few days ago." Cologne shook her head and laughed softly. "Anyway, we both know that it won't work on living flesh."

"Of course, the chi flows disrupt the technique as it is." Cologne shrugged at that. "However, you can't tell me that you wouldn't want to have some... Amusement." Just for a instant, the very air seemed to grow heavier, clammy and oily and just wrong somehow and for the first time in a very, very long time, the Joketsuzoku matriarch wondered if she had made too big a mistake. Then the felling was just gone, as if it had never existed. Seeing him raise an eyebrow, she smirked, though still a little jumpy from the odd experience. "Imagine if this "Deed" girl thought that one touch could kill her, hmm? It might keep her on her toes and make the fight interesting."

Ranma shook his head, even though he was chuckling. "Interesting, but I'm pretty sure that the rest of her sisters would try to get involved if they thought she was at serious risk."

The old woman chuckled at that. "Well, I need to get back, see if you can think of a way for this to happen, it might be fun."

Ranma shrugged, though he would admit, the reactions could be funny, but he just couldn't see the others not jumping in and interfering. "I'll see what I can do."

Jumping leisurely away, while unconsciously keeping an "eye" on Collogne's aura of course, Ranma tried to shook of what little hold it had gained on him. A focused mental blow latter, and the annoyance had settled back in its rightful place, the very bottom of his psyche, leaving behind mere phantom of felling. Anger, possessiveness and its always present and at time overwhelming hunger. Oh well, he had other things to think about, a quick trip in his own mind-scape to remind the useless piece of garbage what its place in the local food chain was and would be able to concentrate on the important matters, like how to get a one-on-one fight to actually happen. "Why do I feel like I'm forgetting something?"

(-)

"Soon, soon I shall have my revenge... And then..." A smirk appeared on his face as he looked at the water that was around him. "Shampoo will be all mine!" He stood up and took a dramatic pose. Which would have been impressive if he hadn't tripped over one of the buckets and went crashing into a dusty table in the corner of the dusty room. "My glasses." He muttered, before spotting something that was shiny. "There you are." He reached for the shiny thing. "Now then, I'll Quack!"

The newly minted duck just blinked a few times, wondering what just happened.

(-)

Deed blinked a few times as she looked at Ranma, then she looked at her other sisters, who were slightly confused, before she turned back to him. "Bakusei Tenketsu..?" She scratched her head, that was a weird name for a technique.

"Yep." He nodded to her as he and the girls were sitting around at the Tendo house-hold about twenty minutes after his meeting with Cologne, well, except for Uno, she was taking a day off and helping Kasumi with something in town. Genma and Soun were playing Go, or rather, were looking at the board, but paying more attention to his conversation with Deed. "I've seen the technique shatter roads, mountains, level forests and cause cave-ins, and all with a touch of a finger."

"The Breaking Point..." Genma spoke up, causing several of the girls to spin to him as he looked on gravely. "It's said that everyone and everything has one, a single touch to that point will destroy anything."

"Wait, are you saying that anyone could kill with a touch with this technique?" Tre suddenly shot up, her eyes wide as Deed paled at the thought.

When Genma nodded, Nove slammed her hands onto the table. "Hell no!" She pointed at Deed while frowning. "You aren't going to do something like that." She wasn't going to lose a sister over something so stupid, that was for sure.

Deed nodded, even though she was certain she could win, a lucky touch and she'd be dead? No, she'd rather not risk it over something that wasn't that important.

"Boy! Why don't you, woah!" Genma suddenly found himself weightless as he floated up when Ranma raised his hand up and raised an eyebrow at him.

"Look, Genma, if I fought anyone, it wouldn't be fair to them, since I would have to hold back so much that I might actually lose." With that, Ranma dropped Genma onto the floor next to the chair.

"Ommph! Yes, I can see that." Genma nodded as he stood up and tried to look wise, which was ruined as he rubbed his backside. "An ability to win a fight so easily should only be used if needed."

"Riiiiight." Ranma drawled out, knowing that if Genma had such an ability, he wouldn't stop to use it at every opportunity, of course, Genma probably was just saying that because he didn't want to get beaten up without having a chance to at least attempt to fight back. Suddenly Ranma shivered slightly. Jedi Master Genma was probably the most terrifying thought he could have ever thought up in a long time.

He vowed to make it a reality some day, just to prove to both Yoda and Anakin that there were some things worse than a drunk Palpatine in a Hutt slave girl outfit trying to convince everyone that he was a pretty girl.

"Anyway..." Ranma cleared his throat to get their attention. "The thing here is, Ryoga wants to test his new technique out, he's not really that bad a person, just stubborn, stupid and ornery, but he wouldn't want to kill any of you." Mostly because they were women and Ryoga really didn't know any of them. Ranma then shrugged as he thought about it. "Anyway, as for the technique itself, well, I've fought against someone with it before."

The cyborgs looked at him, interested in this information. "Oh?" Sein, who was laying across Dieci and Wendi's laps, blinked a few times. Some people might have thought it was odd that Sein was laying like that, but other than Cinque, who was the smallest, Sein was pretty light for her size. "How'd that turn out?"

Ranma shrugged at that. "Well, I can tell you that it really doesn't matter if someone can kill you with a touch, if you don't let that touch happen, you can't die, right?"

"I'll fight him." Everyone blinked as Tre stood up and scowled lightly. "He wanted to fight me originally anyway, so I'll give him a fight." She quickly left the room while most of the more combat-oriented cyborgs, and Genma, followed after her, promising to help her train her reflexes, just in case.

Sein, who had been deposited to the floor when Wendi and Dieci both got up, blinked at Ranma. "What's wrong?"

"...Nothing..." Ranma blinked as Sein suddenly sat in his lap and looped her arms around his neck. "Sein?"

She frowned at him slightly. "You've never acted like this before, what's wrong? Tre'll be alright, she's tough and fast, Ryoga'll never kill her with that..." She blinked as Ranma sighed again and shook his head. "Then what?"

"...Actually, can you keep a secret?" When she nodded, he leaned in close to her ear and whispered to her. "That technique's worthless in combat actually, it can't kill a person with a touch."

Sein blinked as he pulled back. "Then why not..." When Ranma explained the reasons why, Sein started giggling uncontrollably. "That... Hee hee... Is the funniest... Ha ha... Thing ever!" She laughed for a few more moments before pressing herself against Ranma and hugging him tightly. "Don't worry, I won't tell, but thanks, I was worried for Tre too." When Ranma hugged her back tightly, she blinked a few times, it felt like he was clinging desperately to her. "...Dad..?" Honestly, she had never thought of Ranma like that until that moment, but he seemed to need that at this time.

"Sorry, it's just... I'm worried that they'll hate me for manipulating them like this." He didn't let go of her, even as she shook her head.

"Nah, they won't hate you, they'll be upset, but a good prank is always worth it." Sein was sure that Tre wouldn't be happy, maybe Nove wouldn't either, but at the very least they'd forgive him, since she was sure that she or Wendi would probably do the same thing to them.

Ranma chuckled softly, oh, how he knew that. Still, it did make him feel a little better.

(-)

Looking at Genma with a frown, Tre wondered why he had brought her to a construction lot. When she asked, Genma had a weird smirk on his face that just felt _wrong_ for some reason. "Well, there's a lot of debris for one, for two, no one will care if we destroy stuff." Maybe the construction companies, but they seemed to like it when stuff was destroyed for some odd reason. Genma smirked as he picked up a few rocks. "Plus, if that technique really can do what my boy says it can, you'll need to learn how to dodge... And I know that some of your sisters can attack at a distance..."

Wendi blinked a few times before speaking up as she caught onto the idea. "Wait, does this mean that we all are going to attack Tre?"

Genma's smirk was incredibly nasty at this point. "Yep. All she has to do is dodge. Shouldn't be too hard considering how fast she is." Genma flipped back and away from Tre. "So... Shall we begin... Oh, don't forget to DODGE!" He yelled as he threw a rock at Tre far faster than it had any right to go.

(-)

Meanwhile...

Nabiki blinked and looked around, the hair on the back of her neck was standing up. She had opted to actually go to school this day, mostly because she wanted something to do and people to talk to.

"Boss, you okay?" One of her classmates asked, before Nabiki blinked a few times and shuddered almost violently.

"Either Ranma's training someone _that_ way again, or I'm being paranoid..." There was the chance that Genma was training someone in the "dodge" method, but that didn't seem likely.

(-)

A few hours later, Uno blinked as she saw Sette carrying Tre over her shoulder as she walked into the Tendo home. Her carrying Tre made sense at least, since Sette was the only one who was tall enough to carry Tre without dragging her on the floor. "What happened?" She was worried as Sette set Tre down, and there were bruises, burns, some shrapnel stuck in her skin as the rest of her sisters looked on pretty nervously.

"Training got a little out of hand." Sette said, looking upset as she looked at Tre. "Where's dad?"

"I'm... Not sure actually." Uno blinked as she thought about it, before blinking as Cinque and Otto did what they could to get shrapnel out of Tre's body. At least it wasn't big, just chunks of rock, some glass, and... "Cinque, is that your knife?"

"...I missed." She said softly as she pulled the knife out of Tre's leg. She was just thankful that she hadn't made it explode, otherwise Tre would be missing a leg at that moment.

"Where's Genma?" Uno wasn't surprised as the others just shrugged. She didn't care for him too much herself. Eventually, Wendi admitted that Genma had accidentally been in the way of a Ray Storm when Otto missed Tre. Considering that he had been breathing and still alive afterwords, they just decided to leave him there.

Still, Uno did wonder just where Ranma disappeared to.

(-)

Sein found herself on her hands and knees, panting hard. Looking up, she glowered at Ranma, even though there was no anger in her eyes. "You're... Insane..."

Ranma shrugged, honestly, he had been insane for the longest time, hearing that was nothing new to him. Still, at least their session had been productive. "Well?"

Sein shook her head and nearly passed out, before blinking as she was picked off the ground. "Huh?" She blinked at Ranma as he smiled at her softly.

"Come on, let's get you home then."

"Sorry." She muttered, sighing softly as he carried her home, the gentle rocking from his running actually caused her to close her eyes and rest her head on his chest, where she fell asleep.

Looking at her, Ranma smiled softly. Sein honestly had put in a lot of effort into what they had done. It wasn't her fault that she had worn out. Still, he wondered how long it would take her to actually get her Deep Diver skill to the point where she could phase through living matter, or at the very least, be able to use her skill without calling it out all the time.

For some odd reason, he got a weird mental image in his head at that moment.

*Mind-scape*

"Banzai!" Sein yelled as she grinned and jumped at Erio, who stared at her stupidly.

"GAH!" He crashed into the wall that sprouted up behind him, causing him to see stars while Sein got up, unharmed and pouted.

"Drat! I was hoping to phase through you that time."

*Mind-scape*

Ranma sweat-dropped and wondered where that came from. "That's something that Orihime would've thought up." Hell, he was certain that if Orihime took Sein's place for a loop with her phasing powers that she'd attempt to phase through Ichigo just to see what she could do with them.

(-)

The next thing Sein knew was a warm, wet, cloth-like substance rubbing her body down. "Huh?"

"You can go back to sleep." She heard Dieci's voice as she looked up at the naked brown-haired cyborg. "You were pretty worn out when Ranma brought you back in."

"Oh..." Sein muttered and snuggled her head against Dieci's naked lap. "Mmmm... Your lap's comfy."

Dieci didn't say anything as she quietly cleaned Sein's body of sweat and dirt. Though, she wasn't sure if she should be insulted or not about having Sein call her lap comfortable. Especially since Sein was nuzzling her head against Dieci's crotch. Oh well, at least it wasn't sexual in nature, since Sein was just trying to get more comfortable.

(-)

Soun looked at the board in front of him. He looked up at his opponent, who just smiled back at him pleasantly. Smiling, he looked back at the board. Who knew that the young-looking girl was so good at Go?

Sitting across from Soun, Cinque found that the game was a nice distraction from her guilt at accidentally hurting Tre, at least the wound had just been skin deep and not as serious as it appeared. Still, how the heck was Ryoga supposed to touch Tre with that attack? She honestly hadn't seen him do much of anything that was dangerous at all. 'Then again...' She thought to herself, rolling her shoulder. As big and harmless-looking as Genma was, his attacks _hurt_ when he hit you with them, then again, maybe it was worse because he was in his panda form.

Both Cinque and Soun were surprised when two naked bodies suddenly came through the floor and crashed onto the table. "Ouch!" Dieci cried out, rubbing her butt in pain.

Soun stared the sight before him, Sein was sitting up and looking around for someone, like she was just attacked out of nowhere, and inadvertently giving him a complete and total free look of her complete and totally naked body. A small dribble of blood escaped from his nose as he looked at the cyborg. It got worse as she spun around, letting him see her backside completely. The weird thing was, if he discounted Sein's hair color, she looked almost like a younger version of his dear departed wife.

'Oh Kimiko, I'm sorry, but I've been single for so long and... Why does it feel like I'm about to die?' Soun thought to himself as he slowly turned around, gulping as he looked at the glowing blue eyes of Ranma. "Uh, now... You can't blame me... She appeared just in front of me and it would be rude to just look away."

"I could forgive that... If you would have at least tried to mention to Sein and Dieci that they weren't in the bath anymore..." Grabbing Soun by his shoulder, he dragged the older-looking man out of the room. "We need to... Have a talk."

"Kimiko, help me!" Soun bawled as he was dragged away.

Meanwhile, Dieci was blushing as she wrapped herself up in the towel that Uno offered her, she couldn't believe that she had been completely seen like that. Sein, on the other hand, just put her towel on quietly while looking for short-tempered tomboys and mallets trying to take either hers or Dieci's head off.

Nabiki wore a bewildered expression as she walked into the room. "Anyone know why my dad looked like... oh." She finished lamely as she saw Sein and Dieci in their state of dress, or undress as the case was. "I thought you were washing her?"

"I was, but your sister thought I was doing something perverted..." Dieci complained and wished that she had brought her gun with her, at least then she could have defended herself better. She might have had super strength, but she wasn't much for hand-to-hand or close-range combat.

Nabiki rubbed her head. Honestly, she thought that Akane was pretty mellow in this loop for someone who wasn't in the know. Sighing, she just decided to ignore it. With any luck, Ranma wouldn't kill her for what she tried to do. Nabiki took five steps towards the kitchen before sighing and turning around. Who the hell was she kidding? Once Sein or Dieci complained about it, Ranma would likely blow a gasket and seriously maim her baby sister. Which was how she found herself coming face-to-face with Akane as she tore out of the bathroom with a serious look on her face. "What the hell?"

"Out of my way, Nabiki!" She yelled, trying to shove her older sister out of the way, only to blink as she couldn't get Nabiki to budge. Oh well, she'd move the instant that she knew why she was so upset. "Two of those girls were being perverted in the bathroom."

"...You do realize that Sein was likely to drown in the bath if she tried to clean herself off, right?" Nabiki raised an eyebrow at Akane. "And Dieci was just being a good sister and cleaning her off."

"Bu...Bu...But..." Akane couldn't believe this, Nabiki was taking their side?

"Besides, if those two say anything to Ranma, well... I'm pretty sure that you won't like the results."

Akane frowned and squeezed her mallet tightly. "That pervert, bringing in all these perverted girls into this house and doing things..." She gasped as she felt a stinging, burning sensation on her cheek. "...Nabiki?"

"Listen, and listen well, little sister..." Nabiki narrowed her eyes at the youngest Tendo. "Those girls mean a lot to Ranma, they're like his daughters, if you go and try to hurt them..." She trailed off, shaking her head. "Just let it go. If you see them doing something weird, just ask what's going on."

"Who are you and what did you do with my sister?" Akane pointed dramatically at Nabiki, who just sighed and held out her hand.

"600 yen." Seeing Akane face-fault was enough to make her smile. "Akane, let's just say that it's better for everyone if you keep your temper in check." She turned around and sighed. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I better make sure that daddy's still alive and try to diffuse the situation..." Or she could make it worse, she could go either way at that moment.

After telling Akane to go back and take a bath, Nabiki sighed as she walked towards the dojo, sometimes she wondered just why she was doing this. The mental image of her sister horribly bloody, beaten and mutilated came to her, answering her question. "...I hate you so much, Saotome." She muttered to herself as she caught Ranma walking out of the dojo. "I do hope that you didn't hurt daddy too much." When he shrugged, she sighed and grabbed his arm as he was about to leave. "Anyway, I need to tell you just why that happened."

"What?" Ranma said flatly after Nabiki explained everything to him. He was tempted to go to Akane and mallet her across town, then dismissed it, since Akane didn't have the conditioning to survive that. Honestly, he didn't want to do any killing in this loop if he could avoid it. Well, for some people. Others could just go straight to hell. He could probably give Hild a call and express deliver some of the people himself if he wanted to.

"Look, just... Don't go and..." She trailed off as there was a loud crashing sound, nothing unusual about that, but the helicopter sound that came afterwords wasn't something that was heard too often. "...Please don't tell me..."

Ranma rolled his eyes as he stepped outside, before blinking. There was Otto in the arms of a pink-haired catgirl. "Nuku? What's going on?"

"Huh?" The catgirl blinked and turned to look. "Oh, hey Ranma!" She grinned at him as she danced around the bullets that were being fired at her. "Seems that Emi-chan wanted to have some fun, but then I accidentally ran over someone who said that you were his dad," she gestured at Otto in her arms, "so I thought I'd bring him here to see if you were here and you were, but I'm honestly shocked, I thought that loops prevented people from having children since we'd all go insane if we had to watch our children grow up a little bit, then disappear and get born again and again and again and again and..."

"Nuku..." Ranma interrupted her, getting the excitable catgirl to stop saying anything. "I think Emi's going to get pretty upset at you if you don't pay more attention to her."

"Oh. Sorry." She put Otto down before jumping onto the wall of the compound, then up into the air, grabbing the tail of the helicopter and spinning around in mid air, causing the helicopter to spin and wobble through the air before crashing into the ground several blocks away. "Okay, Emi's done." She bounced back into the yard. "It's weird though, Otto looks like a boy but smells like a girl, what happened? Another mirror clone or something?"

"Actually, I'm a girl." Otto said as she stood up and dusted herself off. "Really, you grabbed my chest when you pulled me off of my bike, you should know my gender."

"Oh, sorry." Nuku rubbed the back of her head before blinking as her stomach growled. "Man! I forgot, it's almost time for dinner." Waving to Ranma and Otto, she jumped over the wall and ran fast enough to leave a giant dust cloud in her wake.

"Uh..." Otto blinked a few times as she looked at Ranma. "So, you know her?"

Ranma chuckled and nodded. "She lives on the other side of Nerima and stays there, normally. Her name's Nuku Nuku."

"Weird name." Otto muttered, getting a laugh from Nabiki.

"She used to be a cat."

"Eh?" Otto stared as Nabiki smirked at her.

"Yep. Then she got ran over, her brain put into an android body and she stayed that way for awhile, but then..." She trailed off, looking at Ranma, who shrugged.

"She ended up getting a real flesh-and-blood catgirl body." Sighing, he shook his head at that. "Interestingly enough, she only has the cat ears and tail and she can make her finger and toe nails long and hard enough to be claws, other than that... She's pretty much human."

"Except when she goes into heat." Nabiki snarked at him.

"Right, except when she..." He trailed off and mock-glared at her as Nabiki stuck her tongue out at him. "I hate you."

"Feeling's mutual." Nabiki smirked as she headed towards the kitchen, she wanted that snack.

"Hey, dad..." When Ranma looked at her, Otto rubbed the back of her head. "My bike exploded... Um... Can I have a new one?"

Ranma rolled his eyes at her, honestly, she looked too dammed cute with that embarrassed expression on her face. "Fine, but I'll teach you how to make one this time, okay?" Otto nodded as the two went into the house.

Hours later, Genma finally found his way back to the dojo. He was rather beaten up and extremely hungry as he stumbled into the compound. "Growf?" He wasn't surprised to see everyone sitting at the table, well, Soun wasn't, which was odd, and Akane looked oddly subdued at the table while two, Sein and Dieci if Genma could remember correctly, looked at her with some light glares.

"Took you long enough." Nabiki chuckled, getting an angry growf from the panda as he sat down at the table.

_I was out conscious and then I got wet,_ *Flip* _what did you expect?_ The panda "signed" to her as it started to eat He blinked as Wendi stole the sign from him and started to inspect it.

"How the heck? You can only write on one side, how the..."

_You learn quickly _*Flip* _when you need to _*Flip*_ speak and have no human _*Flip*_ vocal cords._

"...You're just messing with me, aren't you?" Wendi deadpanned, getting a shrug from the panda as it went back to eating.

"Just ignore him, Wendi. Everyone else does." Genma gave a sad sound as he looked at Ranma. There was something about his demeanor that kept the panda from actually challenging what he just said. What it was, he wasn't sure, though he suspected that it had something to do with why Dieci and Sein were upset.

(-)

A few days later...

Tre sighed as she looked at her sisters. "How long does it take for him to show up?" They were at the construction lot that she had been using as a training ground for the past few days.

"Depends on how long it takes them to correct his direction." Ranma chuckled as Deed tapped his shoulder. "Huh?" Looking to where she was pointing, he shook his head. "Well, there he is, I'm surprised."

"Why?" Sette was curious, she was rather enjoying the sparring matches that she had been getting with Tre in the past few days.

"Normally it takes Ryoga at least four hours to get somewhere, even with someone leading him, this time it only took about forty-five minutes." He shrugged at the disbelieving looks he was given. "Hey, I didn't give him the directional curse, regardless of what he thinks at times."

"I'm starting to believe everything you're telling us." Sette muttered before settling back to watch the fight. Honestly, she wondered just how much of a fight Ryoga could put up against Tre. Still, a part of her worried for her older sister, which got a sigh from the tall cyborg.

Cinque looked at Sette, concerned. "What's wrong?" When Sette was silent for awhile, Cinque shook the pink-haired girl's leg to get a response from her.

"...It was easier when I didn't feel anything." Sette murmured softly, blinking as she suddenly found herself sitting on Ranma's lap. "...Dad?" He was partly hugging her, one arm behind her back, the other across her body as she sat in his lap. She felt her face heat up, but it was rather nice.

It wasn't anything sexual, just a concerned parent holding their daughter. But Sette wasn't used to such close and comforting contact. It made her feel quite shy and embarrassed.

"Don't." He said softly as the rest of her sisters, except for Cinque, since she had been the one to ask, and Uno, since she was sitting right next to Ranma. "It might be true that not having emotions makes things easier, but all it does is make you feel empty inside."

Sette, her face still slightly red, looked at Ranma as his eyes seemed to dull and get unfocused. She wasn't the best at reading people's emotions, but something seemed wrong here. "Dad?"

He shook his head quickly and looked at her, smiling softly. "Sorry, but even if things would be simpler without emotions, you should never, ever wish to have none. It's better to feel some emotions and be alive, than move through life feeling nothing."

Ranma blinked as he felt a hand on his shoulder, turning to look, he saw Cinque's smiling softly at him. "What?"

Cinque shook her head, unable to really put into words how _happy_ she was that Sette was feeling emotions and her younger sisters were all becoming more and more human, rather than just fighting machines. The only thing she hoped for was that her sisters didn't suddenly decide to be as crazy as Wendi or as silly as Sein. It was alright in small amounts, but if they all decided to be like Wendi or Sein, well, Cinque wasn't sure what she'd do at that.

(-)

Ryoga looked at Tre, his face heated up slightly, he just couldn't get that mental image of when he first saw her out of his head. Coughing to hopefully clear away the images of her long legs, toned body, the scent and her large breasts...

Tre sweat-dropped as Ryoga turned bright red and face-faulted to the ground. "...He does this often?"

"Shampoo think that Lost Boy is just moron." The purple-haired Amazon sighed as Ryoga jumped to his feet and yelled at her. "Just fight now!" She yelled at him and really, really wished that he wasn't such a complete idiot.

Contrary to what Shampoo thought, Ryoga _wasn't_ a total moron, he just tended to be less educated than most, due to him not able to get to school all that much. Despite that, he was still relatively smart, capable of reading, writing and speaking in several languages due to his travels. It wasn't his fault that he was totally inept at finding his way out of a room with one door and no windows with the aid of maps, compasses and a GPS.

Those doors tended to be hard to find after all. And he _swore_ to high heaven that they liked to move around on him. Really, was it so much to ask for a door to be in front of him at all times?

"As much as I hate replying to someone who can barely speak the language, I do agree with her." Tre shifted into a stance. "So, just shut up and fight."

Ryoga got into his own stance and blinked as Tre rushed at him and punched him in the gut, the sheer speed and strength behind that attack was nothing to sneeze at, but he had seen her move, at least briefly, he just hadn't expected her to go so fast like that. Still, such an attack, well, he was pretty sure that if he hadn't just taken the Bakusei Tenketsu training, he'd probably be out with that one attack right then and there.

On the side-lines, Cologne smirked as Ryoga went falling to the ground. "It's not over."

"What makes you say that?" Nove asked as she looked at the little woman before shuddering. For some odd reason, the look on her face gave her the feeling that the old woman knew something she didn't. "Tre's the best fighter of my sisters." Or at the very least; the fastest and strongest, but Cologne didn't need to know that. "He's out."

"You think so?" Cologne smirked as Ryoga got up with no problem, much to the shock of the cyborgs watching. This was going to be fun, and she wondered just how long it would take for Tre to get poked by Ryoga, before mentally chuckling and sitting back to enjoy the show.

"What the heck?" Wendi could only stare as Ryoga rushed forward towards Tre, who merely side-stepped, only to have to block and parry the exploding shrapnel caused by Ryoga's finger touching the ground. Thankfully the two were far enough away from the group that none of the rocks got to them.

"Holy crap! Dad was right!" Otto nearly jumped in to help but Sein grabbed her shoulder and shook her head. "But, Sein..."

"Don't worry. Tre's strong, right?" Sein smiled at Otto as the boyish girl nodded. "Just relax then and hope that he doesn't touch her."

Otto wasn't too sure, but after a few more misses by Ryoga, she relaxed, after all, if he kept missing, he'd just wear himself out with all those rocks pelting him. Not to mention that Tre looked like she was starting to enjoy how _easy_ this was going to be.

When Ryoga missed again, Tre smirked and kicked him in the gut, lifting Ryoga off the ground and allowing her to punch him in the jaw and into a nearby steamroller. "Really, this is pretty easy." Tre rolled her eyes and turned to look at Cologne. "You were a tougher opponent."

Cologne started laughing and pointed her staff at Ryoga. Turning to look, Tre blinked a few times as Ryoga effortlessly got up. "What the hell?"

"Was that all?" Ryoga smirked at her. "I barely felt that. In fact, it kind of tickled."

"What kind of freak is he?" Wendi glomped Nove as she trembled slightly. Nove didn't even bother pushing the other redhead off of her that time, since she knew just how hard Tre could hit. Hell, even she couldn't take her older sister's attacks and shrug them off like that. What kind of training did this _Bakusei Tenketsu_ entail anyway?

"To be able to take a punch like that..." Cinque trailed off, her face paling, not that anyone was looking at her, since she was sitting the furthest back. For some reason, the shortest cyborg was imagining Ryoga having to suffer from several dozen Excellion or Divine Busters at maximum power. Anything that could survive that had to be tough enough to take a single punch from Tre.

Oddly enough, Sette was imagining Ryoga having to listen to Kodachi and Deed laugh at him. She looked at her shorter sister, sitting just in front of her and Ranma and stared at the brunette oddly.

Deed suddenly got the urge to start laughing, and she wasn't sure why.

As Ryoga tried to poke her again, Tre grabbed his outstretched arm and spun around, getting his feet off of the ground as she spun around a couple of times before letting go and letting him crash into pile of steel beams. Looking around, she grabbed a piece of pipe and rushed at him, cracking the pipe across his ribs and sending him tumbling away from her. "...There's an analogy here somewhere, but I'm not sure what it is."

"Homerun?" Cologne spoke up, remembering how fun baseball was when she was younger. Hey, she was old and had seen a lot. Sports like Volleyball, Baseball and even Basketball were actually pretty popular back in her village. She was thankful that football, both versions, had never caught on in the village, that would have been messy.

"Hole in one?" Wendi shrugged and blinked when Nove looked at her weirdly. "I was bored that day."

"Strike?" Sette raised her hand and Ranma shrugged before adding his two cents to the conversation.

"Timber?"

"Gooooaaaallll!" Sein jumped up with her hands straight up in the air. "What? The Spanish guys were yelling that and getting their hands up in the air like this after making goals."

"What kind of weirdos do I have for family members again?" Tre wondered, before she found herself suddenly leaving the ground before getting slammed into the ground onto her back. Grimacing, she let go of the pipe and rolled away and onto her feet and stared at Ryoga as he looked at her with an amused look on his face. "...Are you sure you're human?"

Ryoga scratched his head, if he thought about it, it was a pretty good question. He couldn't even recall the last time he had seen his parents. Still, he was having fun with this fight, even if he was starting to hurt slightly from those attacks she was landing on him. "If that's all you've got, you should just give up."

"Too hell with this..." Tre grumbled, purple bladed wings appearing from her wrists and ankles. "Ride Impulse!"

Ryoga's eyes widened as she glowed purple and suddenly disappeared in a flash, no wait, there was a purple thing flying at him, the way his body jerked from it as it passed by was no illusion. Even before he recovered, he took another shot to the back, causing him to stumble forward, another hit to his side had him twisting to the side before a hit to the back of his head sent him stumbling forward. He spun on his heel and saw a purple blur heading right at him. Smirking, he waited until the last moment before sticking his finger out.

Tre's eyes widened, dammit, she had been to eager, too hasty and now she was going to pay the price as his finger touched her right in the chest above her breasts. The shock knocked her out of Ride Impulse and caused her to crash into Ryoga, the two bouncing on the ground for a couple of feet before they slid to a stop. She could only blink at him stupidly as he stared up at her, continuing to poke her in the chest, her breasts pressing against his body as she straddled him, the two of them wondered what the hell just happened.

The two looked at the spectators, their faces still stuck in that same stupid look.

Cologne started chuckling, she couldn't help it, it was always so funny to see people's faces when they learned that a technique didn't do what they thought it could do. She often wondered why people didn't do more research into new techniques. Oh well, it did provide extreme amusement for her.

"What the heck?" Nove turned to Cologne as the old woman was starting to laugh more at everyone's confusion. "What's going on? I thought that was lethal."

"What? You mean this little Bakusei Tenketsu?" Cologne poked Nove in the forehead, getting a surprised look from the redhead and her hair standing on end. "You honestly think I'd teach him a lethal Amazon technique when he's not even a member of our tribe?"

"So... How can it make rocks explode if it can't do the same to people?" Cinque was glad that Tre didn't blow up, but still, she wondered why someone would develop such a technique for battle if it was useless on people.

Cologne laughed at the small girl's question. "That's the whole point of the technique. You see, it was designed years ago by construction workers in order to clear away large boulders, since we didn't have modern technology back then. The toughening up part was a nice bonus, especially since that's useful in conflicts, unarmed or not."

Tre suddenly shot up and glared at Ranma. "You said that you saw the technique make forests explode."

"I think the actual words were "I've seen the technique shatter roads, mountains, level forests and cause cave-ins," nowhere in there did I say anything about it killing someone."

Tre twitched, held her finger up as she looked at him, before sighing and realizing that he did have a point. "You could have said something."

Ranma shrugged at her. "Actually, I was kind of curious to see how you would handle it."

Ryoga stood up and rubbed the back of his head. "So... That's it then?"

"Would either of you had fought if you knew that the technique was worthless as an attack?" Cologne chuckled as they shook their heads. "Besides, no one got hurt, it was a fun fight to watch, and I got to have fun at you young kids' expense!" She laughed as she bounded away, Shampoo following her with a wave.

Sette looked at Ranma, she was a little disappointed that Ryoga didn't get what was coming to him, but she wanted to know something. "Hey, dad..?" She asked as she got off of his lap and the two walked to Tre, who was looking rather pissed off.

"Hmm?" Ranma looked at the other girls as they started to clear out of the lot, well, except Uno and Cinque. He mentally laughed as he heard Sein admit to the others that she knew it was a useless fighting technique, only to get yelled at by Nove and Deed.

"Are all fighting techniques in this world based on something else?"

"More or less. Some are designed for food, some are designed for drinks, others designed for construction, and some are designed for thievery." He grabbed Tre's hand as she tried to punch him in the face.

"Why didn't you tell me?" She snapped as the tall cyborg glared at him.

"Other than wanting to see how you'd react if you thought someone could kill you with a touch, I have no excuse." When Tre growled at him, he sighed. "Look, Tre, I'll admit, I'm a bastard at times," he poked her in the chest, right between her breasts, causing her to fall on her ass as he let go of her hand, "but I've also trained a lot of people over the course of these loops, and if I hold your hand the entire way as you learn, you won't be able to think for yourself." Sighing, Ranma turned around and started to walk away. "And that would be the worst thing for you and your sisters, being unable to think for yourself."

Tre looked at Uno, who shook her head as she walked up to her sister. "What happened?"

"I think, that in all these loops, that he's made a lot of mistakes, hurt a lot of people and did stupid things, so sometimes the situations he finds himself in with us brings back painful memories."

Tre sighed, she wasn't really mad at him, she was just in a state of shock and she needed to do something to get rid of the shock. "We should go home before something happens to make things worse, huh?" The others nodded and started to walk back to the dojo.

"Hey, Cinque..."

"Hmm?" The smallest cyborg looked up at her taller, but much younger, sister. "What is it, Sette?"

"We should do something nice for dad." The girl sighed and slumped when Cinque asked her what she had in mind. "I'll... Get back to you on that."

Cinque nodded, but was smiling inside. Even if this world was weird and crazy, it was making her sisters develop and open up. A little bit of trickery more than made up for it, at least in her opinion.

If nothing else, then Cinque was grateful for that at least.

* * *

Notes:

Dieci's "overdrive mode" is based, partly, on Heavyarms from Gundam Wing. And, yes, the shoulder pads do carry missiles.

And, apparently laughter can toughen you up. At least as long as it's Naga, Kodachi or Lutecia's laughter.

And an Omake for the road.

* * *

Omake:

Ranma stared, wide-eyed as he looked at the raw path of destruction. "...Kasumi... What did you feed her?" Seriously, he knew that the Numbers were capable of mass destruction, but not like this...

"...A glazed bear claw." Kasumi could only say as she looked between the pastry on the plate in front of her and the ping-ponging girl of destruction.

"She only had one bite?" Ranma protested as he looked at the path of destruction. "...Okay, new rule, no feeding Cinque that much sugar ever again."

"WHEE!" Cinque let out a high pitched giggle and laugh as she ran through another wall, making it crash and explode as she did that.

"On the other hand, I wonder what Signum or Reinforce Ein would be like if I doped them up on caffeine and sugar." Ranma muttered to himself.


	8. Numbers in Nerima VII

Time Loops

Numbers in Nerima

Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I own nothing, leave me alone.

* * *

It was a dark and stormy night, an evil that the world hadn't seen in a long time had awakened from its long slumber as the rock holding it in finally broke and fell apart. The great evil stood up, before falling down and planting its face into the dirt.

As it raised a feeble hand up into the air, it let out a word that came to represent sheer terror for everyone that would hear it in the future.

"_Panties…"_

(-)

Mousse grimaced as he jumped into the air, barely avoiding an explosion that took his spot moments later. As he landed on a fence, he looked around, his eyes darting around behind his thick, coke-bottle size glasses, trying to find the source of these explosions.

"Got you." A soft, female voice said, which caused his eyes to widen as he spun around, chains whipping out from his robes, before several knives pinned down his robes to the sidewalk under him. "Now…" He watched as a small girl, wearing red shorts, a light red shirt, a black eye patch and long, silver hair looked at him, frowning. "Leave my sister, Nove alone."

Mousse grimaced as she basically straddled his chest. "Why should I listen to such a little girl?" Now, if it was Shampoo, he might actually listen, not to mention that she was a lot better looking than some little girl with silver hair.

Narrowing her good eye, Cinque brought out a Stinger Knife and held it above his head. "Because I can make practically everything I've touched explode, and since I've touched all of these knives, well… It wouldn't be pleasant, would it." She slowly swung the knife above his head. "Now… You are going to stop attacking my sister whenever you feel like it. You are going to leave her alone unless you give her a proper challenge ahead of time and you are not to announce it as you attack her, do you understand?"

"Why should… GRUK!" Mousse's eyes bugged out slightly as she grabbed his throat, his mouth was forced open as she put the knife just centimeters away from his lips.

"Now, you are going to leave Nove alone, or the next time I see you, I'll tie you down, and drop this into your mouth before making it explode, do you understand?" When he nodded slightly, after a few moments, Cinque got off of him before canceling the knives that were pinning him down. "I don't wish to kill you, but to protect my little sisters, I will do anything, even sacrifice my own life for them if I have to, as long as they live, nothing much matters to me, understand?"

"…Fine…" Mousse muttered, just loud enough for Cinque to hear, before she walked off, leaving the myopic Amazon to stew in his anger for awhile. He couldn't believe such a little girl did something like that to him. "Stupid outsiders, can't they just mind their own business?" He whispered as he got up and walked off. Some further… Planning was needed.

Watching this, a certain purple-haired entity smirked and tapped her chin before disappearing. "Oooh! Won't Ranma want to know about this?" She giggled as her voice disappeared onto the wind.

(-)

Sighing as she walked back to the Tendo place, Cinque wondered about where her life was going. She liked how her sisters were able to live and enjoy themselves. But what about her? What did she have? It didn't help that, as she walked past a window, she took a look at herself and sighed heavily. No matter the fact that she was older than anyone but Uno and Tre, she looked like she was ten, twelve if she was lucky, and she couldn't change that. It really did suck, since while she looked after her sisters, she just wouldn't get older.

_little girl, little girl, little girl._

She clutched her head and grimaced as those words rolled through her mind over and over again. "I didn't ask for this body. I didn't ask to be a cyborg. I didn't ask to be like this." Tears were leaking out of her good eye as she tried to stave off what she was hearing in her mind. "I didn't want… I didn't want any of this, I can't help what I am."

She didn't know how long she was standing there, but the next thing she knew she felt a hand on her shoulder, startling her as she spun around, her eye was red and puffy as tears still leaked out of it. "What..?" She blinked as she found herself pulled into a hug. "Ranma, what?"

"Heard that you were feeling down." He muttered as she hugged him back tightly. "And I was walking with Dieci to go to the zoo. Want to come with?" He wasn't surprised when she didn't answer right away, the way her small body shook and trembled was a good indication of her mental state. Despite the fact that she was the one who looked after her sisters, Cinque still had human emotions and insecurities, and considering what Mousse had said, at least according to Lilith, he wasn't surprised to find that she was in an emotionally unstable and fragile state of mind at that moment.

After a few minutes, Cinque pulled back, blushing hard as Ranma gave her a paper hand towel. Wiping her face off, she smiled as he stood up to his full height. "Um… Can I come with you?"

"I think I asked if you wanted to join us." Ranma chuckled at her and held out a hand for her to take. "Come on." Taking his hand, the two walked a few feet where Dieci was waiting for them quietly. When they got to her, she smiled and grabbed Cinque's other hand.

"So, we were heading to the petting zoo, right?" Dieci asked and smiled as Ranma nodded and Cinque's face lit up.

"Yeah."

(-)

Cinque was in heaven, okay, not really, but it was as close as she could get in life as she held a small bunny in her arms and was petting it. Near her, Dieci was petting a small deer, she didn't even know how the zoo got a deer so tame, but she wasn't complaining, especially since it was just eating out of her hand and tickling her with its tongue.

Watching them, Ranma just sat on a nearby bench. When he was younger, he might have sat on the wall behind him, but those were days long past and…

"Who the hell am I kidding?" He muttered before jumping up from his sitting position and sitting on the edge of the wall. "Much better." He couldn't help it. He loved the high ground. Idly, Ranma wondered if maybe there was something that required all anchors to have a quirk of something that they really enjoyed to do for fun. He loved being up high, looking down at the world, Nanoha had her love of flying, Naruto had his love of ramen, and Shinji had his love of music, though that last one seemed rather mundane compared to the rest of them, but it was still there. Looking down, he resisted the urge to laugh as some sheep walked up to Cinque and butted their heads against her back to get her attention. When she turned and practically squealed in delight, Ranma shook his head. She was acting just like the teenager that she was. It was… Rather refreshing, actually.

Down in the pens, Dieci was laughing as the deer practically started nuzzling her with its head and neck. She didn't know why Ranma suddenly asked her if she wanted to come with, but she wasn't complaining. Especially if it gave results like this.

As for Cinque? Well, the poor girl looked like she really was about to die from happiness caused by cuteness overload. When a baby cow came over and mooed at her, she passed out, a blissed out smile on her face as the animals converged on her.

(-)

"Nnngh… No more licks… I have no more food… no more… hee hee…"

Dieci sweat-dropped as she heard Cinque talk in her semi-conscious state. "I don't know if that's normal or not…"

Ranma shrugged as he rubbed Cinque's back, the small girl was laying down on his lap and twitching occasionally. "I've seen people who were coming down from a sugar rush act similar for awhile." He chuckled as Dieci nodded at him. "She'll snap out of it soon enough.""I hope so." Dieci chuckled softly. "I'm not used to seeing her like this.""I don't think anyone is." Ranma laughed softly, but secretly, he was glad that Cinque could just let go and be a kid at times. Even if someone calling her a child hurt her badly, being able to just let go and be herself was something that he enjoyed to see.

"Hey, Ranma…" He turned to Dieci, who was looking at the ground, her face seemingly in thought. "Why us?"

"Huh?" He might have had a lot of abilities, but reading someone's mind when they asked a vague question like that wasn't completely within his realm of abilities. Maybe if he was Xavier or a deity, he would be able to, but he was neither, so it wasn't really something he could do.

"Why care about us?" Dieci sighed softly, her face troubled. "I heard from Nabiki… You have women who love you, and there's a few people who dislike you, but still look up to you… And you even have people who look up to you as a surrogate father, even though you were mean to them… So, why us? Why even bother caring about us?"

Ranma scooted over to Dieci and wrapped his arm around her shoulder. "Because I'm a horrible person, because I want to teach people, I want to make up for what I did in the past, and because I thought that you and your sisters deserved better than being left behind without any experiences for yourselves."

"Really?" The two looked down at Cinque as she looked up at the two of them. "You aren't a bad person."

He shook his head, sighing and chuckling softly. "I'm a jerk, asshole, selfish and utterly rude to people." He closed his eyes and leaned back. "I'm too scarred, mentally and spiritually, to really do much anymore, I guess I'm just trying too hard."

"No you aren't." Cinque said as she sat up and hugged him tightly. "Nabiki told us, about the man who originally created all of us… About Jail Scagiletti… You're a better person than he is, no matter what you think."

"Cinque..?" Ranma blinked, he hadn't expected her to hug him. "What..?"

She pulled back and smiled at him. "You aren't a bad person, you wouldn't have cared to help us if you were… A bad person wouldn't help Nove, Wendi, Sette, Tre or comfort me when I was sad."

Dieci chuckled and put her arm around Ranma's shoulders. "I think you're a nice guy too, better than what you think." She giggled softly. "Thanks for helping us."

Ranma was old, older than most everyone in reality by this point, he wasn't prone to erupting into emotion, but these girls, the former numbers… He surprised both of them when he hugged them tightly, tears falling down his face. None of the three spoke for awhile, Ranma, because he was just… Happy, and the girls because they weren't sure what to say.

In the end though, they decided to just enjoy it.

Deep down, Cinque wondered if Ranma was helping them, or if they were helping him. It seemed to be a bit of both from her point of view.

(-)

Sein and Wendi were at a local park undertaking a task of monumental importance. "He's pretty cute." Sein pointed out a random jogger as he ran by them.

Yes, both Sein and Wendi were partaking of the "check out the cute boys" mission that most teenaged girls in Japan went through.

Wendi nodded and giggled as she saw a small girl with red hair trying to keep a much larger dog from running off with her and failing as it suddenly woofed and started to run, causing the little slip of a girl to get dragged through the air as he feet were forcibly removed from the ground. "Yeah…" Wendi pointed out to another boy as he walked by them on a pathway a few feet away. "He's got a cute butt."

Sein nodded and laughed as the dog ran into that boy, causing him to crash into the ground. "Maybe we should stop the dog?"

Nodding, Wendi waited until it got close and froze the ground under its feet, causing it to slip and fall, sliding for a few feet where Sein grabbed it and started hugging and petting the large dog. Wendi wondered if maybe the dog was a Saint Bernard, it was definitely big enough.

"Thank you." The young girl panted as she got to her feet. Her outfit was a little scuffed and dirty, but she was smiling. "Yosef is usually a good dog, but he's so strong."

Sein smiled at the young girl as she rubbed the big dog on the belly after it lay down on the ground. "He seems like a good doggie." She smiled more as the young girl nodded. "It might be easier to ride on his back, don't you think?" The girl's eyes lit up as Sein stopped rubbing the dog's belly, causing him to get to his feet. Grabbing the girl, Wendi put her on the dog's back and the two laughed as the dog took off, this time the young girl was able to at least avoid being dragged through the air like she had been last time.

"That was fun." Wendi giggled softly, but blinked as the ground started to rumble. "Uh… Is this supposed to happen?"

"It's Japan, don't they have earthquakes every ten seconds?" Sein scratched her head. "Or am I thinking Los Angeles?"

"I think they have Monsoons every ten seconds."

"Aren't those supposed to be over by India?" Sein scratched her head as the rumbling, to them, got louder. Most people probably wouldn't be able to hear it until it was too late.

"Maybe… What about out of control forest fires?"

"You're thinking California."

"Oh yeah." Wendi nodded before the two jumped back as the ground started to bubble up and then explode outwards. "Huh, that was odd."

"Where am I now?" A familiar male voice was heard and the two blinked as the dust settled and a slightly dirty Ryoga was standing there. "Huh? Oh, it's you two, uh…"

"Wendi."

"Sein." The two said flatly as they looked at him through lidded eyes.

"Oh yeah…" Ryoga nodded and blinked, grumbling to himself. "Actually, I never knew your names, I just knew Tre and Deed." Tre, because he had fought her and Deed because she beat him up. Looking at the two of them, his eyes lit up as something came to his mind. "Hey, um… I'm a bit lost…"

"You don't say…" Sein shook her head. "The day you're not lost is the day I admit that I'm a lesbian."

"Aren't you though?" Wendi asked the green-haired girl, who shook her head.

"No… What makes you say that?" Sein looked at her bustier sister in confusion.

"Well, you did teach me how to grope breasts in the bath." Wendi held up one finger.

"Well, yeah…" Sein sweat-dropped slightly.

"Then I heard about what you did to Caro, Subaru, Teana, Nove, Rio, Corona, Einhart, Lutecia and Vivio…" A second finger went up.

"Uh, yeah, but that…" Sein was sweating heavily at that point, a slightly exasperated look on her face as Wendi pointed out the things that she did.

"You groped Teana's crotch, Rio's chest and slapped everyone else on the butt…" Wendi stopped and looked at Sein curiously. "You know, that reminds me… Shortly after Godzilla broke everything, you took off with Teana for a long while… Are you attracted to her or something?"

Sein crossed her arms, closed her eyes and turned away. "Hmph! Just because I might have taken Teana out to some bushes and did some incredibly kinky things to her, you just assume I'm a lesbian. Well, I'm not."

"Riiight…" Wendi drawled out, giving Sein a half-lidded stare. "And Hayate Yagami will spend the rest of the loops as a nun who took a vow of celibacy."

The two blinked as they heard a thud, turning, they saw Ryoga passed out, blood pooling out from his nose as his eyes swirled.

"Huh, what's with him?" Wendi asked, getting a shrug from Sein as the only answer.

(-)

Looking at Dieci, Cinque felt her face flushing slightly as the two of them were at a tailor shop and getting measured. It wasn't Dieci being nearly naked that caused her to flush, but rather the girl who was measuring her. It wasn't too often that she was in her under garments and getting measured, after all.

Dieci, for her part, had her eyes closed. Though she was mentally swearing that the girl measuring her body was taking her sweet time touching her butt, and she was sure that last touch was a caress. If she hadn't been asked to strip down to her underwear, she would've been dressed in her normal clothes, but this was something special. Her face was turning more and more red as the touches lasted a little too long for her comfort. "Are you done?" She didn't like pushing people away unless she had to, but this was too much.

"Just finished." The girl behind her smiled as she stepped away. "Now, we'll need to get a variety of styles for you two to try on…" She trailed off as a clothing rack full of various clothes were pushed to the fitting room.

Seeing this, both girls sweat-dropped. Yep, life was much easier when they were pranking Mid-Childa, this was torture in comparison.

(-)

"I did it." Sette said calmly as she walked into the living room, getting Uno and Nove to blink at her in confusion as she walked up to Nabiki. "See?"

The three girls in the living room sweat-dropped as Sette started to rub her belly and pat her head at the same time. "Ah, Sette…" Nabiki did have to admit, that was impressive, since it was only a couple hours since she started to try. "That's… Nice."Sette blinked a few times at her. "But, didn't you say that only truly dexterous people can do that?"

"I said that people have trouble rubbing their bellies and patting their heads…" Nabiki shook her head and fell over as she saw that Uno was actually trying to do the same thing as Sette, and failing at it.

"This is harder than it looks." Uno blinked as she found herself having a hard time doing it.

Nove shook her head and left the room, wondering if insanity was contagious.

(-)

The sun was starting to set as people started to go home and relax after school or work, though some were going to various eateries to get a meal before going home.

Ranma looked at the restaurant he stood in front of, he was dressed in casual dress pants and a dark shirt, before wondering why he felt like he needed a cigarette… Or maybe something to lean back against and try to look cool before shrugging it off and shaking his head. Tugging on his pigtail, he wondered if maybe he should spend a few loops with his hair loose. "Heh, that would throw a few people off." At least for a few moments, maybe, possibly, ah, what did he care? Tapping his chin, he nodded and chuckled. "Next fused loop, I think I'll become a lawyer with short hair… I just hope that former super hero isn't still trying to be a lawyer by that point."

He turned and raised an eyebrow as he saw two females get out of a taxi. One was short, with long silver hair that was tied up into a ponytail, wearing an eye patch and was wearing a modest black dress that had straps on her shoulders, she had white gloves over her arms and she blushed as he smiled and gave her a thumb's up. Her companion had her long brown hair tied up against her head in loops while wearing a shoulder-less brown dress that hugged her curves in all the right places.

The two blushed more as people openly stared at them, some of them crashed into various things, flower pots, bikes, parked cars, mailboxes, telephone poles, an out of control motorcycle and a purple dinosaur, killing it instantly… All-in-all, minor things.

Smiling at them, Ranma walked up to them and looped his arms through their arms and walked with them into the restaurant. "You two are beautiful." When they blushed more, he shook his head. "I mean it, Dieci, Cinque, you two look very nice right now.""Thank you." They both said, their faces red as they were led to a small table in the corner.

"Um, so why take us out to dinner?" Cinque asked after a waiter came by and dropped off some menus.

Ranma chuckled softly. "Well, I figured that since I'm spending the day with you two, I should make a full day of it. Besides…" There was a soft smile on his face as he looked at them. "I figure that you two could use a nice night out on the town without your sisters." He felt a little bad that he hadn't given either Cinque or Dieci more personal attention, but considering that they were the most stable and balanced of their sisters, they probably wouldn't have been jealous even if he spent all his time with their other sisters.

"Wouldn't they get upset?" When Ranma shrugged, Dieci sighed softly. "You're rather easy going, aren't you?"

Ranma chuckled softly at that. "I've had a long time to go through a lot of different emotions, I'm just taking the time to be relaxed this time." Especially since he could actually take a step away from the insanity for once. The three went quiet as they looked over their menus.

After a waiter came over to them and got their orders, he nodded to them. "I'll be back with your orders soon." He said and turned, muttering something.

"Excuse me?" Cinque said, frowning and narrowing her good eye at him. "Just what did you call Ranma?"

The waiter turned, his face was surprised that she had heard him even speak. "Excuse me?" She couldn't have heard him, that was impossible. No human had ears that sharp.

"Apologize to him." Cinque might not have been physically intimidating, but the way she was glaring at him made the waiter quite nervous, well, that and the knife that seemingly appeared in her hands. People pulling knives out on each other wasn't anything new in any restaurant in Nerima, but for some reason, he felt that the girl knew just what she was doing with that weapon.

"Cinque…" Ranma spoke softly as he grabbed her hand, getting her to look at him and stopping her from doing something crazy with that knife she called out. "It's okay. He doesn't know anything.""But…" She was confused, it was almost as if Ranma was used to being insulted. "He called you a lolicon."

"I know." Ranma sighed softly and looked at the waiter. "Sir, you should know that these lovely ladies are in fact close to my age. Cinque here is sixteen while Dieci is fifteen years old…" Ranma grinned at him in a vaguely creepy manner. "So, calling me a lolicon because someone looks like a young girl is rather insulting to her, and the last person that insulted her ended up pinned to the ground by knives."

The way that he was grinning, the vague feeling of total doom coming down from somewhere, and where did the outline of a demon cat come from? "Ah… Yes, good point. My apologies, young miss, drinks are on the house." He bowed and quickly made his way to the kitchen.

Dieci looked at Ranma and giggled softly. "Where did you learn to do the creepy face look?"

"That… is a secret." Ranma waggled a finger at Dieci and was quite thankful Xellos wasn't running around in this loop. Or at the very least, he hadn't felt the fruitcake yet.

(-)

Dieci looked out at the park as she, Cinque and Ranma walked through it. It was starting to get late, the sun was low in the sky, making the formerly blue sky a nice mix of reds and oranges. She had to admit, after a nice dinner like that, other than the waiter's original comments, taking a relaxing walk was fun. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath. It felt rather nice, not being asked to snipe anyone, to not have to fight.

Sure, she was as combat capable as her sisters, but, she didn't really want to fight if she could help it.

"Are we always going to be forced to fight?" Cinque spoke up suddenly and caught her attention. Dieci wasn't sure if Cinque was thinking the same things she was. It might have just been a general question, but Dieci agreed with the sentiment.

Ranma sighed as he looked into the evening sky. "Honestly, that's up to you." His back was turned to them as he spoke. "Every universe, every universe you go to, there will be problems. Most of them can only be solved with violence, since people aren't willing to listen until after you've beaten them down. And sometimes, it just isn't enough." He turned to look at them and smiled. "But, you don't have to enjoy fighting. For some of us, it's because we need to survive in dangerous worlds. For others, it's because we enjoy it. Some of us, it's both. If you don't care to fight, it's up to you, but not everyone is as kind as I am." Which was saying something, considering how he was some days and loops.

Dieci shook her head. "I kind of figured that we'd fight a lot. If I can support my sisters, that's all I care about."

"That's good…" Ranma trailed off and turned to the side, his eyes narrowing. "What the..?"

"Hahahahahahahaha! This is so good!" An old, male voice was heard as a dust cloud was kicked up. "Panties! Panties! Panties!"

Groaning, Ranma just slapped his forehead. "I can't believe I forgot that he showed up now." He held up his arm and pointed lazily at the approaching figure, a red ball of energy formed around his fingertip before launching it at the person coming.

The two girls had to shield themselves from the wind and dirt of the explosion that came up from that attack.

After it ended, Ranma frowned. He had barely used anything in that attack, and it had that kind of effect? The ten foot diameter and four foot deep hole in the park made him stare at his hand, concerned. Were his seals slipping? It was something to look into.

"Uh… What was that?" Dieci asked, looking slightly worried.

"An annoyance taken care of." Ranma shook his head before blinking as a charred ball crashed in front of him. "…You're still together?"

"…Panties…" The ball groaned as Ranma nudged it.

"Yeah, you're okay." Ranma shook his head. Oh well, if Happosai was alive, he'd cause problems in the future. Maybe he'd just put the little bastard out of everyone's misery ahead of time. Then again, Soun and Genma's reactions were hilarious when dealing with Happosai.

"Is it… Alive?" Dieci asked as she got close to the ball.

"Wait…" Ranma's warning came a moment too late as the ball seemed to gain life as it leapt up and squeezed Dieci's breasts.

"Hot'cha!" The male spoke as he rubbed his face all over her breasts. "Ah, how I missed this, such beauties, so firm, so soft, so perky, so…" He stopped as a clacking sound was heard and he felt a metal tube pressing to his head.

"I'm going to ask you politely to let go of my breasts right now, sir." Dieci was calm, except for the twitching in her eyebrow. "I might… Accidentally blow your head off if you don't let go."

Happosai sweated slightly and did let go of the girl's chest. "You wouldn't hurt an old man that just wants to have some fun, would you?" He got all doe-eyed as he looked at her. All she did was frown at him.

"I might be a nice person, but I don't like it when people grab my breasts without my say so."

"Oh…" Happosai seemed to pout, before he grinned and disappeared. "How about your rear? Oooh! So firm and big for your size and…"

"Let go of my sister." Cinque said softly as she held a knife to Happosai's throat. "She doesn't want you grabbing her and I don't blame her." Her good eye widened as she found herself flying through the air.

"Go away, little girl, this isn't something that you would underguuk…" Happosai grabbed at his throat as he let go of Dieci's butt and sank to his knees. His eyes were wide as he felt the oxygen get cut off to his body.

Dieci spun around and glared at him. "I did not give you permission." Sure, Sein and Wendi would sometimes grope her in the bath, but that was out of fun, and she wasn't adverse to fun, but this… This left her feeling dirty all over. A yellow ball of energy formed at the tip of her gun. "Just… Go away." Despite never raising her tone of voice, the words still came across as menacing and cold before she pulled the trigger, blasting Happosai and sending him flying out of the park.

Ranma frowned as he finally let go of choking Happosai, partly because he wasn't really in a mood to kill the guy, and partly because he had to move to catch Cinque on her return trip.

She blinked a few times and looked at Ranma, smiling at him before leaning up and giving him a small kiss on the cheek. "Thank you." She was blushing as he put her down and helped straighten her dress out.

Smiling, he walked over to Dieci, who was still trembling with anger. "Hey…" He touched her on the shoulder and wasn't surprised as she hugged him, trembling heavily. "Shhh… If I see him again, I'll set him straight, okay?"

She nodded against his chest and he sighed before turning slightly so that Cinque could hug the both of them. He mentally growled at Happosai. 'Dammed asshole, this night had been so fun too.' He hoped that both Cinque and Dieci would calm down. Whether or not they continued their outing was up to them.

(-)

"Nove?"

Turning, the redhead looked at Sette as she sat down on the roof next to her. "What?"

"Do you… Dislike me?"

Nove stared at her as the pink-haired hippie gave her a rather blank, flat look. "What makes you say that?"

"Of all of our sisters, you, Wendi and Sein spend far less time with me than anyone else. Perhaps you dislike me or are uncomfortable around me?"

Nove winced, Sette had started to sound like a person for awhile now, but she seemed to revert to a more… Machine-like droll when she was upset. Even if Ranma had prevented her from becoming completely emotionless, she still had trouble with emotions, not that Nove felt herself any better sometimes. "No, Sette, I don't dislike you. There's just so much that I want to experience that I don't always get time to hang out with everyone." Even if this world was insane, it was pretty fun. "Besides…" Nove smirked at Sette. "Sparring with you in the morning is a lot of fun."

Sette cracked a small smile and nodded. "Yeah, that is a lot of fun, isn't it?" Nove relaxed as she heard Sette start to sound _normal_ again. "May I join you?"

"Sure." Nove chuckled as Sette moved right next to her and sat down, looking out at the city. "…He was right?"

"Who? Dad?"

"Yeah…" Nove smiled as she gestured out to the whole city. "Look at it… It's beautiful near the end of the day."

Sette nodded, her small smile not leaving her face.

It was a peaceful, beautiful moment that deserved to just end on that note.

Sadly, it was a peaceful, beautiful moment in Nerima. Something was bound to cause it to end.

That something in this case was a flying, blackened ball of smoldering flesh that crashed onto Nove, hitting her in the chest.

"Oww… What the?" Nove blinked as the thing trembled slightly before looking up at her. "Um, are you okay?"

"No… Oww… That mean girl… Hurting me like that…" Its eyes got all big and watery as it looked at her. "You won't be mean, will you?"

"Uh…" Nove wasn't sure what to say.

"So, just let me have a good cry on your busom!" The thing grinned and grabbed Nove's chest, squeezing and rubbing its face back and forth quickly. "Wow! So big! So natural! So soft and firm! Hot'cha!" He jumped off and grabbed Sette's chest, leaving Nove twitching and glaring angrily at him as he groped and squeezed Sette's chest. "Oh my! These are even larger! How great! I love this!"Nove stood up and made a grab for him. "Get off of my sister!" She missed, her hand grabbing Sette in the breasts, causing the pinkette to blush even harder.

As for Nove? She suddenly stiffened as she felt a body rubbing against her butt. "What the hell?" She kicked her foot back at her butt, several times, before the person jumped off and grinned at the two of them. "Who the hell are you!"

"I'm Happosai." He grinned and held up three items of clothing. Both Nove and Sette blushed as they saw him holding their bras and Nove's panties. "Thanks for the silky darlings!"

Both cyborgs twitched and nodded to each other as Sette stood up. The little freak had to die for doing that to them.

(-)

"What's wrong, Sein?" Wendi asked as they got close to the dojo. "You've been looking upset for the past few minutes.

"I feel… As if someone was fondling boobs and I wasn't invited." She pouted as she continued to walk.

Wendi grinned and got behind Sein before grabbing her modest chest and squeezing. "Well, I think you just do it because you're jealous of how big the rest of us are."

"Hey, I've groped Cinque before." Sein protested, but she didn't stop Wendi from getting a few more squeezes in before the redhead let go. "It's just been a long while.""Uh huh…" Wendi gave her a flat stare as the two continued to walk towards the dojo. They stopped as they saw something bounce off the wall, Nove on her Airliner and Sette in mid-air were chasing it down.

"Stop, you panty-stealing freak!" Nove growled as she sped up to get in front of it. "Now you can.. EEK!"

"My my! You've got a nice crotch too, my dear!" Wendi growled as she saw him do that, but Sein winked and grabbed her shoulder, the two disappeared into the ground. "Well, I'm off, hahahahahahahaha!" Happosai bounded away, leaving her a trembling mess of anger as she and Sette both redoubled their efforts to catching and possibly killing the little freak of nature.

Happosai turned and stuck his tongue out at the girls as he was getting away. He landed, only for a moment, and jumped into the air again, when suddenly he found himself encased in a block of ice. He looked around, wondering what the heck this was.

"Got him." Wendi smirked as she and Sein popped up out of the ground behind Happosai. "Nove, Sette… He's all yours."

Both girls nodded, and Sette had a nearly feral, for her, grin on her face as the ice cracked open just enough for Happosai to breath.

"Have mercy?" Happosai whimpered as the two were giving him evil grins, his feet were still frozen after all, so he couldn't avoid anything they would give him.

"I believe the correct response is… No." Sette said softly as they converged on him.

Wendi and Sein both winced at the sheer _violence_ that was inflicted to the poor perverted bastard. Granted, Wendi wanted to do the same herself, she was sure that Nove didn't like anyone nuzzling her crotch like that, at least in public, and only by people that Nove herself liked.

After the two were done venting on Happosai, they took back their undergarments and walked back towards the dojo, Wendi and Sein following right after them.

"So, what did he do, besides touching you two?" Sein wasn't stupid, but she was curious, and she did wonder why they left that guy back on the street, bruised and beaten like that.

"…He stole my panties and our bras… Without taking our clothes off!" Nove grumbled as she stormed forward, Wendi following right after to try and calm her down while Sette walked behind them.

Sein? She stopped and thought about it. Being able to do something like that? She looked at her hands. She could probably do something similar herself, but hearing what Nove went through…

"Hey…" She poked the bruised Happosai after walking back to him. He groaned and looked up at her. "How did you take Sette and Nove's bras and steal Nove's panties without taking their clothes off?"

Happosai looked up at her and blinked. He blinked again as he stared at her confused face. This was a position that he didn't find himself in very often. Most of the time, girls and women wanted to beat him up. Someone asking how he did his best moves? "I doubt you could appreciate my style and…" He blinked as she picked him up to look at him, eye-to-eye.

"I can go through the ground freely. How about I drop you off, oh, say, about three miles underground near a volcano?"

He looked at her dumbly. "…You can go through walls?"

Sein snorted, that was easy. "Walls, roads, weapons…"

Happosai slowly grinned. Maybe he could have a worthwhile apprentice after all. "My name's Happosai, what's yours?"

"Sein."

The old perverted Grandmaster of Anything Goes grinned. This… Could be fun.

To Be Continued…

* * *

Um, I don't have much to say this time, actually.

This chapter was mostly focused on Dieci and Cinque, since I felt like they hadn't gotten much screen time (and I was asked to give them more screen time). And I've had thoughts of Sein and Happosai meeting since BEFORE ViVid had Sein groping all the girls in the bath.


End file.
